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Illustrated 



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NAtroNAL Commissioners. 



J. T. W. TILLAR, MRS. ROLLIN A. EDGERTON, 

J. H. CLENDENING, MRS. JAMES P. EAGLE, 

Cotmnissioners. Board of Lady Managers . 



<S~^4S>iS?iS>iS>iS><S>««-5> 



Arkansas World's Fair Directory. 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

JAMES MITCHELL, President. JAMES MITCHELL, Chairfnan. 

W. S. THOMAS. W. S. THOMAS. 

H. L. NORWOOD, Secretary. H. L. NORWOOD, Secretary. 

R. B. WEAVER. 

E. W. PASCOE. 

Officers on Duty in Chicago. 



R. H. ADAIR, Manager. MISS FANNIE M. SCOTT, Lady Assistant. 



(o~>iS>iS>iS>^SMS><S>J-9 



Persons desiring information about Arkansas, its resources, products, capabilities, etc., 
can obtain the same by addressing Hon. W. G. Vincenheller, Commissioner of Mines, 
Manufactures and Agriculture, Little Rock. 

Information in regard to railroad lands will be furnished by Col. G. A. A. Deane, 
Land Commissioner St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, Little Rock. 



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ARKANSAS 



IN 



1892-1893. 



PREPARED FROM DATA OBTAINED FROM THE CENSUS RETURNS 
OF 1890, AND OTHER AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES. 



FOR THE 

WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OP THE 

ARKANSAS WORLD'S FAIR DIRECTORY. 



DIPLOMA PRESS • 
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT COMPANY, LITTLE ROCK. ARK. 
1603. 



^A ' ' 



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,. ^ 



PREFACK. 

This book has been divided into two parts, viz : 

First. The State of Arkansas as a whole. 

Second. The State treated by sections. 

The first part was prepared by Prof. J. H. Shinn, State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, and the second by persons whose names are attached 
to the several articles. It is confidently believed that the whole State has 
been fairly presented, and that the matter set forth is entirely reliable. 

JAMES MITCHELL, 

President Arkansas World's Fair Directory. 
H. L. NORWOOD, 

Secretary. 

22 SEP 1905 
D.atD, 




THE STATE. 



POPULATION. 



The design of this volume is to present to the world a pen picture of Arkansas as it is 
educationally, morally, financially and otherwise, together with a view of its resources. 
Men who seek homes desire to know the truth, and special pains has been taken by the 
Arkansas World's Fair Directory, to whom was intrusted the task of compiling this book, to 
have it show the State as it is, and what may be reasonably expected of it under ordinary 
circumstances. Those who read may trust what is said, and it is confidently believed that 
every new comer will find greater things in the State itself than can be described or noted in 
this volume. 

The State itself is young, although discovered by De Soto in the sixteenth century and 
wandered over in turn by the Spaniards and the French for more than two hundred years, 
it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that this region attracted the attention 
of English and American settlers. Carved out of the Louisiana Purchase, it took a territorial 
form in 1819, and was admitted to the Union as a State in 1836. 

In 1820 there were but 14,255 people within the present limits of the State. The 
successive decades have noted successive changes, each of which was a marked improve- 
ment over the preceding one. Emigrants have always sought the State, and the authentic 
figures which record their movements show that the regular migration of home seekers 
towards Arkansas has never been behind the normal movement of population to the other 
new States. The growth of the State is best exhibited by the following figures : 



YEAR. 



1820 

1830 

1840. 

1850 



POPULATION. 



14,255 
30,388 

97,574 
209,897 



YEAR. 



i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 



POPILATION. 



435,450 

484,471 

802,525 

1,128,179 



From 1820 to 1830 Arkansas outstripped all the States in the Union in increase of pop- 
ulation, save Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. From 1830 to 1840 Michigan was the only 
State that excelled her in population growth. From 1840 to 1850 she kept pace with all 
save Iowa and Wisconsin. While from 1850 to i860 she outstripped all the rest save Iowa, 
California and Texas. The strength of a country's soil and the attractiveness of its climate 
are best attested by the comparative ratios of those who seek it and remain with it. Judged 
by this standard, there must have been a remarkable vigor in the soil to place Arkansas so 



6 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas: 

high in percentage when compared in population growth with the other States. The war 
was not strong enough to stay the growth and when peace blessed the country with prosperity, 
Arkansas made the remarkable record of almost doubling her population in the sixth decade 
of her existence. From 1870 to 1880 the population ran up from 484,471 to 802,525. The 
steady stream of emigration so regularly maintained through sixty years did not fall back 
from 1880 to 1890, when the State reached its maximum population of 1,128,179 souls. 
This increase during the last decade is phenomenal. Not a State in the Union of the same 
age maintained an increase of population from 1880 to 1890 of 40 per cent, and yet this 
was the rate of increase for this queen State of Southern growth. Even the Empire State of 
Texas, with an area of five times that of Arkansas, and younger in years, was beaten in the 
race. 



INCREASE. 

The increase in Texas was 40.44 per cent; while in Arkansas the increase was 40.58 
per cent. No State east of the Mississippi, except Florida, approached Arkansas in 
per centum of increase of population. In fact, she was outstripped by no States save 
Florida, Minnesota, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, North and South Dakota, Idaho, 
Montana, Wyoming and Washington, many of whom are too new for statistical comparisons. 

Every year has not only brought a marked increase of population, but as will appear 
later on, this increase has always been of the thrifty, vigorous kind. The wealth totals will 
bear out these statements. 

The population of both kinds, black and white, is divided as follows: 

Whites, 804,658. 

Blacks, 309,427. 

The entire native population is 1,113,915 against 14,264 foreign born. The whites 
with native parentage number 780,969, leaving but 23,708 of the native whites with a 
foreign parentage. The possibilities of a State with such clear blood strains are beyond 
calculation. 

The percentages of increase in native born population from 1880 to 1890 for the south 
central division of the country are shown below : 



STATE. 



Kentucky ... 
Tennessee .. 
Alabama 

Mississippi 



PER CENT. 



13.22 

14-54 
19-59 
14.19 



STATE. 



PER CENT. 



Louisiana. 
Arkansas.. 
Texas 



22.66 
40.61 
40.99 



The percentages of increase for the foreign born population in the sajne division for the 
same period are as follows : 



STATE. 


PER CENT. 


STATE. 


PER CENT. 


Kentucky 


.27 
19.92 
51.81 
13-65 


Louisiana 


8.12 


Tennessee 


Texas 


33-45 
37.82 


Alabama 

Mississippi 


Arkansas 



Showing a greater population movement in favor of Arkansas than of ariy State in this 
division excepting Texas. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



It has been said that the negroes are not well treated in Arkansas. The best indication 
of the treatment accorded a race in any country is to be ascertained by a comparison of the 
movement of that race to or from the section in question. 

The increase of colored population in the south central division from 1880 to 1890 was: 



STATE. 



Kentucky ... 
Tennessee... 

Alabama 

Mississippi 



PER CENT. 



1.23 

6.78 

13.16 

14.19 



STATE. 



Louisiana. 

Texas 

Arkansas .. 



PER CENT. 



1551 
24.10 

46.65 



This phenomenal increase of colored people can only be explained on the theory that 
there is a constant movement of this race from other States to Arkansas ; and this constancy 
of movement negatives the sensational stories of bad treatment. No people will regularly 
turn their faces to a region where they are not accorded fair and generous treatment. And 
no State gives the colored people with so lavish a hand as does the maligned State of Arkan- 
sas. Other figures in this book attest this statement and like these are incontrovertible. 

It has been said that a Northern born man has little chance of success in this region. 
The figures do not support the assertion. From the very beginning there has been a steady 
accession of Northern born men to our population, and these men have been among the 
leaders of every movement for the development of the State. Before the war men born in 
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania represented the State in both houses of Congress and in 
nearly every State position. Since the war there has been a large influx of Northern men 
and these men are among the honored and distinguished citizens of the State and belong to 
each of the two great parties that divide the country. 

Thus thousands upon thousands come to us each year from nearly every one of the 
older States. They come in greater ratios than to other favored localities. They come 
bringing their wives and children, their property and their hopes. They come to search for 
greater happiness and the great percentages of increase favor the inference that they find 
what they seek. Let us look a little more narrowly into the resources of the State for the 
reasons which underlie this great percentage of population increase with the hope that they 
will satisfy a still greater number and continue to turn to us the vigor, valor and virtue of 
every clime. 

COUNTY POPULATION. 

The following gives the population of the State of Arkansas in detail by counties, 
according to the ofificial count of the returns made under the Eleventh Census, taken as of 
June I, 1890. The figures for the same divisions according to the census of 1880 are also 
given for purposes of comparison. 

The population of the State in 1890 was 1,128,179, an increase of 325,654, or 40.58 
per cent, since 1880, when a population of 802,525 was returned. 

In every county in the State an increase is shown, except in Van Buren, where the 
decrease is due to a decrease in territory. In Jefferson, Pulaski and Sebastian Counties the 
largest numerical increases are found. Nineteen counties show increases of more than 50 
per cent. 

The following summary shows the population of each county according to the censuses 
of 1890 and 1880, together with the increase in number and per cent during the decade: 



8 



General hiformation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 
SUMMARY BY COUNTIES. 



COUNTIES. 



The State 

Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Benton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead 

Hot Spring 

Howard 

Independence.. 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 



POPULATION. 



1890. 



1,128,179 



11,432 

13^295 

8,527 

27,716 
15,816 

7,972 

7,267 

17,288 

11,419 

20,997 

12,200 

7,884 

11,362 

19,893 
19,459 

12,025 

21,714 
13,940 

7,693 

9,296 

10,324 

17,352 
18,342 

19,934 

10,984 

15,328 

7,786 

12,908 
22,796 
11,603 

13,789 

21,961 

13,038 

15.179 
40,881 

16,758 

7.700 



1880. 



802,525 



8,038 

10,156 

6,004 

20,328 

12,146 

6,285 

5,671 

13,337 
10,117 

15,771 
7,213 



INCREASE. 



No. 



325.654 



8,370 
14,090 

12,755 

7,037 

14,740 

9,415 
5,050 

6,505 

8,973 
12,231 
12,786 

14,951 
6,720 

9,023 

6,185 

7,480 

19,015 

7,775 

9,917 

18,086 

10,857 

10,877 

22,386 

",565 
5' 730 



3.394 
3.139 
2,523 
7,388 
3,670 
1,687 
1,596 

3,951 
1,302 

5.226 

4,987 
7,884 
2,992 
5,803 
6,704 
4^988 
6,974 
4,525 
2,643 
2,791 

1,351 
5,121 

5.556 
4,983 
4,264 

6,305 
1,601 
5,428 
3,781 
3,828 
3.872 

3,875 
2,181 

4,302 

18,495 
5'i93 
1,970 



Per 
cent. 



40.58 



42.22 
30.91 
42.02 

36.34 
30.22 
26.84 
28.14 
29.62 
12.87 

33- 14 
69.14 



35-75 
41.19 

52.56 
70.88 

47-31 
48.06 

52-34 
42.91 
15.06 
41.87 

43-45 

oj- j3 

63-45 
69.88 

25.89 

72.57 
19.88 

49-23 

39-04 

21-43 
20.09 

39-55 
82.62 

44.90 
34-38 



COUNTIES. 



Lawrence. 
Lee 



Lincoln 

Little River... 

Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion , 

Miller 

Mississippi .. .. 

Monroe 

Montgomery ., 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 

Pike 

Poinsett, 

Polk 

.Pope 

Prairie 

Pulaski 

Randolph 

Saint Francis. 

Saline 

Scott 

Searcy 

Sebastian 

Sevier 

Sharp 

Stone 

Union 

Van Buren .... 
Washington... 

White 

Woodruff 

Yell 



POPULATION. 



1890. 



12,984 
18,886 
10,255 

8,903 
20,774 
19,263 
17,402 
10,390 
14,714 
".635 
15,336 

7,923 
14,832 

9,950 
17.033 

5.538 
25.341 

8,537 
4,272 
9,283 
19,458 
11.374 
47,329 
14,485 

13,543 
11,3" 
12,635 

9,664 
33,200 
10,072 
10,418 

7.043 

14,977 
8,567 
32,024 
22,946 
14,009 
18,015 



1880. 



8,782 
13,288 

9,255 

6,404 

14,885 

12,146 

".455 
7,907 
9,919 
7.332 
9.574 
5.729 

12,959 
6,120 

11,758 

3.872 

21,262 

6,345 
2,192 

5.857 
14,322 

8,435 
32,616 

11,724 
8,389 
8,953 
9,174 
7,278 
19,560 
. 6,192 

9,047 
5,089 

13,419 

9,56s 

23,844 

17,794 

8,646 

13,852 



INCREASE. 



No. 



4,202 

5.598 

1,000 
2,499 
5,889 
7.117 
5.947 
2,483 
4,795 
4,303 
5.762 
2,194 
1,873 
3.830 

5,275 
1,666 

4,079 
2,192 
2,080 
3,426 
5.136 
2,939 

14,713 
2,761 

5.154 
2,358 
3,461 
2,386 
13,640 
3.880 

1.371 

1.954 
1.558 
^998 
8,180 
5.152 
5.363 
4,163 



Per 
cent. 



47-85 
42.13 
10.80 
39.02 

39.56 
58.60 
51.92 
31.40 

48.34 
58.69 
60.18 

38.30 
14.45 
62.58 
44.86 
4303 
19.18 

34-55 
94.89 

58.49 

35.86 

34.84 

45-" 

23-55 
61.44 

26.34 

37-73 
32.78 

69.73 
62.66 

15-15 

38.40 

II. 6r 

a 10.43 

34-31 
28.95 
62.03 
30.05 



a Decrease. 



CITY POPULATION. 
The population of the thirteen cities and towns having 2,000 or more inhabitants: 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 



Little Rock city 

Fort Smith city 

Pine Bluff city 

Hot Springs city 

Helena city 

Eureka Springs city. 
Texarkana city ((^) ... 

Fayetteville city 

Camden city 

Arkadelphia town 

Van Buren city 

Batesville town 

Jonesboro town 



COUNTIES. 



Pulaski 

Sebastian 

Jefferson 

Garland 

Phillips 

Carroll 

Miller :... .. 

Washington .... 

Ouachita 

Clark 

Crawford 

Independence . 
Craighead 



POPULATION. 



1890. 



25.874 

11,3" 

9,952 
8,086 
5,189 
3>7o6 
3.528 
2,942 
2,571 

2,455 
2,291 

2,150 

2,065 



1880. 



13,138 
3.099 
3.203 

3.554 
3,652 

3.984 
1,390 
1,788 

1,503 
1,506 
1,029 
1,264 



INCREASE. 



No. 



12,736 
8,212 

6,749 
4,532 

1,537 
^278 

2,138 

1,154 
1,068 

.949 

I 262 

886 

2,065 



Per 
cent. 



96.94 
264.99 
210.71 
127.52 
42.09 
^6.98 
153.81 

6454 
71.06 
63.01 

122.64 
70.09 



a Decrease. 



i T /tal for Texarkana c'ty, in Miller County, Ark., and Bowie County, Texas, 6,380. 



General Infonnation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 9 

COUNTY POPULATION BY COLOR. 



AND COUNTIES. 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Benton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead . .. 
Hot Spring... 

Howard 

Independence 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 

Fort Smith 

Hot Springs.. 



AGGREGATE 
WHITE. 



TOTAL 
COLORED. 



Males. 



Fe- I 

males, ^^^les. 



4,221 

3.323 

4.414 

13,882 

7,871 
2,574 
2,397 
8,695 
731 
7,377 
6,583 
4,045 
4,263 
6,482 
6,059 
6,123 
10,007 

1,245 
1,621 

3,076 
1,160 

3,893' 
7,843 
9,967 
5,673 
6.635; 
3,526 
6,8581 
6,178 
5,367 
5,536 
10,561 
6,565 

5,885 
6,178 

8,364 
1,724 

6,463 



3.678; 
3,104 
4.095 
t3,740 
7,852 
2,534 
2,150 
8,510 
661 
6,824 

5,573 
3,787 
3,771 
6,098 

5,729 
5,383 
9,403 

805 
2.181 
2,950 

959 

3,594 

7,151 
9,289 

5,225 
5,912 

3.224 
5.889 
5.641 

4,987 
5,198 
9,820 
6,211 
4,964 

4,773 
7,761 

1,433 
5,688 



Fe- 
males. 



1,776 

3,445 

9 

40 

46 

1,461 

1,396 

36 

5,247 

3.385 

27 

25 
1,748 

3,643 
3,997 
253 
1,159 
6,297 
1,500 
1,621 

4,377 
5.oi8| 

1,745 

339 

36, 

1,312 
536, 
105 

5,541 
656 

1,555' 

7951 
126 

2,210 

15,466 

351 
2,366^ 

443 



1,757 

3.423 

9 

54 

47 

1,403 

1.324 

47 

4,780 

3,411 

17 

27 

1,580 

3,670 

3,674 

266 

1,145 
5,593 
1,391 
1,649 
3,828 

4,847 
1,603 

339 

50 

1,469 

500 

56 

5,436 

593 
1,500 

785 

136 

2,120 

14,464 

282 
2,177 

390 



AGGREGATE 
WHITE. 



STATES, TERRITORIES 
AND COUNTIES. 



Males. 



Lee 

Lincoln 

Little River- 
Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion 

Miller 

Mississippi .. 

Monroe 

Montgomery 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 

Pike 

Poinsett 

Polk 

Pope 

Prairie 

Pulaski 

Randolph 

St. Francis .. 

Saline 

Scott 

Searcy 

Sebastian 

Sevier 

Sharp 

Stone 

Union 

Van Buren... 
Washington 

White 

Woodruff 

Yell 



2,596 
1,928 
2,566 
10,236 
5.970 
8,854 
5,303 
4,328 
3,089 

3,275 
3.903 
5,412 
5,096 
4,259 
2,464 
3,076 

4,115 
2,057 

4,684 

9,253 
3.750 
13,353 
7,319 
3,022 
5,080 
6,520 

4,935 

15,470 

4,513 

5,233 

3.564 

4,339 

4.309 

15.758 

10,478 

3,490 
8,548 



Fe- 
males. 



2,095 
1,856 

2,336 
9,410 

5,308 
8,490 

5,055 
3,819 
2,646 
2,849 
3,718 
5,114 
4,847 
3,817 
2,133 
2,619 
3,938 
1,669 

4,553 

8,584 

3,261 

11,976 

6,571 
2,519 

4,747 
6,081 

4,695 
13,928 

4,103 
5,007 
3,366 
4,266 
4,096 
15,256 
9,901 
2,962 
8,104 



TOTAL 
COLORED. 



Males. 



7,438 

3.443 

1,963 

567 

4,176 

27 

15 
3,359 

3,213 

4,822 

148 

2,159 
6 

4-548 

451 
10,063 

235 

315 

24 

846 

2,282 

",351 
286 

4,200 

746 

22 

21 

1,940 

727 

93 

55 

79 

475 
1,322 

3,901 
708 



Fe- 
males. 



6.757 
3,028 
2,038 

561 
3,809 

31 

17 
3.207 
2,688 
4,390 

154 
2,147 

I 

4,409 

490 

9,583 

249 

231 

22 

775 
2,081 

10,649 

309 
3,802 

738 
12 

13 

1,862 
729 

85 

58 

3.241 

83 

535 
1,245 

3,656 
655 



CITY POPULATION BY COLOR. 



4,654 


4,025 


1,345 


1,287 


3,199 


2,642 


1,051 


1,194 



Little Rock. 
Pine Bluff... 



8,336 
3.021 



7,778 
2,354 



4,626 
2,159 



5.134 
2,418 



GROWTH IN WEALTH. 

In 1838 the entire taxed wealth of the State was, in round numbers, but $15,000,000, 
or about $1,000 per capita of population. In i860 this had grown until the Auditor's books 
showed an aggregate of $122,000,000, or about $300 per capita. The war closed showing 
a taxed valuation of about $38,000,000. This loss of more than $80,000,000 in property, 
besides the other ravages of war, was a tremendous blow at the energies and hopes of the 
people, and it was believed by many that it would be a half century before the people would 



10 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



regain their former estate and give to the world a wealth value equal to that possessed by the 
people at the beginning of the war. But the recuperative power of the people, backed by the 
remarkable natural resources of the State, have enabled them in less than a quarter of a 
century not only to regain the full taxed value of i860, but to increase it 50 per cent. 
The assessment of all the real and personal property of the State foots up to-day almost 
$200,000,000, or about $175 per capita. 

This statement of the assessed wealth of the Staie shows that Arkansas has not only 
kept step with her own ratio of growth as indicated by the decades prior to the war, but 
has also kept step with the whole Union. The whole wealth of the country increased from 
$16,902,993,543 in 1880 to $25,246,589,804, an increase of $7,346,596,261, or 43.46 
per cent. 

Arkansas increased from $86,409,364 in 1880 to $174,737,755 in 1890, an increase of 
$88,228,391, or 102 per cent. That is to say, the increase of taxed wealth during the last 
ten years is greater than the whole amount of property on hand in 1880. Thus, while the 
population has increased more than 40 per cent, the wealth has increased more than 100 per 
cent, and both these elements indicate a condition of health in our industries that invites 
the work, the wealth, and the wisdom, of other sections to our State. 

Of States admitted to the Union prior to i860, Arkansas outstripped them all in per- 
centage of wealth increase during the last decide, except Florida, Minnesota and Texas. 

TOTALS OF ASSESSED PROPERTY. 



1890. 

Total personal property $ 65,320,597 

Total real property 109,417,158 

Total $174,737,755 



1891. 

Total personal property $ 63,983,050 

Total real property 109,417,158 

Total $180,053,068 




•J. 
u 

o 



'it 
U 

o 



pa 



12 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



TOTALS OF ASSESSED PROPERTY BY COUNTIES. 



COUNTIES. 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Benton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead .... 

Hot Spring 

Howard 

Independence 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 

Lee 

Lincoln 

Little River... . 

Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion 

Miller 

Mississippi 

Monroe 

Montgomery... 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 

Pike 

Poinsett 

Polk... 

Pope 



TOTAL PERSONAL 
PROPERTY. 



$ 



1890. 



1,02 



949,290 
641,812 

566,575 

i.355»674 
971,427 
508,235 
391,980 
954,312 
453^028 

1,711,610 
623,525 

391,566 

775,258 

3!36i 
966,143 
957,273 
1,004,828 

1,057,071 

463,044 

568,958 

432,906 

1,274,550 

905 370 
1,106,183 

622,036 
1,174,318 

401,152 

643,036 
1,248,932 

688,865 

721,263 
1,810,040 

808,029 

655,789 
2,072,776 
876,721 
305,820 
1,016,432 
699,800 
464,788 

353,549 
1,164,801 
1,499,205 

796,412 

589,604 
1,473,030 

538,972 

483,323 
336,052 

1,057,736 
457,486 

1,204,955 
261,035 

1,059,828 
383,025 
509,018 

445,669 
1,076,116 



1891. 



964,030 

698,819 

547,444 

1,399,715 
964,056 

544,308 
414,252 
884,293 
385,842 

1,580,333 
710,118 
404,063 
618,415 

1,092,515 

865,915 
1,057,960 

978,465 



474,686 
605,389 

321,556 
1,214,293 

902,498 
1,103,217 

702,083 

1,183,093 

398,535 
709,604 

1,160,653 

1,1x8,248 
665,969 

1,764,856 
755,143 
730,589 

2,246,126 
886,095 
334,708 
985,256 

743,145 
474,655 

332,675 

1,132,297 

1,480,558 

828,456 

586,279 

1,559,960 

468,290 

501,657 

289,653 

1,057,400 

436,598 
1,212,280 

284,034 
1,093.716 

352,149 
367,289 

424,274 
1,103,673 



TOTAL REAL ESTATE. 



GRAND TOTAL REAL AND 
PERSONAL PROPERTY. 



1890. 



1,535,010 
1,189,588 

468,793 

2,217,913 

999,266 

526,902 

534,9" 
1,758,802 

851,069 
1,130,276 
1,308,240 
429,198 
753,340 
1,135,138 
1,841,881 

2,134,492 

1,896,553 

1,058,008 

1,467,208 

622,656 

1,175,255 
985,299 

1,616,541 

1,767,939 

774,130 

2,171,964 

569,563 
1,677,684 
1,929,689 
1,141,846 

916,647 
2,569,270 

762,560 
2,205,498 

4,969,442 
1,590,464 

863,838 
1,905,179 
1,723,735 
1,337,450 

661,609 
1,673,089 
2,022,142 

936,786 

452,999 
1,678,560 

1,323, 195 
1,390,129 

234,625 

986,309 

295,318 

1,452,020 

685,935 

2,476,752 

425,025 

1,177,713 

277,580 

1,701,887 



1891. 



$ 



1,937,290 
1,372,792 

497,573 

2,273,197 
1,080,337 

677,663 

601,629 

1.637,053 
961,036 

1,148,370 
1,182,222 
472,186 
877,540 
1,210,932 
1,987,322 
2 274,697 
1,980,914 



!$ 



1,652,545 

812,263 

1,248,669 

1,141,260 

1,632,573 
1,779,819 

944,306 

3,010,117 

656,320 

1,695,738 

2,002,781 

741,766 

930,704 
2,508,053 

813,810 
2,632,022 

5,213,673 
1.595,505 
1,019,228 
1,880,127 
1,787,466 

1,292,137 
589,162 

1,634,837 

2,318,328 

881,688 

617,203 

1,665,340 

1,295,460. 

1,559,850 

228,871 

998,032 

327.345 
1,574,887 

687,540 

2,816,343 

417,839 

1,443,931 

288,985 

1,652,802 



1890. 



2,484,300 
1,831,400 
1,035,368 

3,573,587 
1,970,693 
1,035,137 
926,891 
2,713,114 
1,304,097 
2,841,886 

1,931,765 
820,764 
1,528,598 
2,159,199 
2,808,024 

3,091,765 
2,901,381 

2,115,079 
1,930,252 
1,191,614 
1,608,161 
2,259,849 
2,521,911 
2,874,122 
1,406,166 
3,346,282 

970,715 
2,320,720 
3,178,621 
1,830,711 
1,637,910 
4,379,310 
1,570,589 
2,861,287 
7,042,218 
2,467,185 
1,169,658 
2,921,611 

2,423,535 
1,802,238 

1,015,158 

2,837,890 

3,521,347 
1,733,198 
1,042,603 
3,151,590 
1,862,167 

1,873.452 

570,677 
2,044,045 

752.804 
2,656,975 

946,970 
3-536.580 

808,050 
1,686,731 

723,249 
2,778.003 



1891. 



$ 



2,901,320 
2,071,611 
1,045,017 
3,672,912 
2,044,393 
1,221,971 
1,015,881 
2,521,346 
1,346,87s 
2,728,703 
1,892,340 
876,249 

1,495,955 
2,303.447 
2,853,237 

3,332,657 

2,959,379 
2,424,094 
2,127,231 
1,417,652 
1,570,225 

2,355,553 
2,535.071 
2,883,036 
1,646,389 
4,193,210 
1,054,855 
2,405,342 

3,163,434 
1,860,014 
1,596,673 
4,272,909 

1,568,953 
3,361,611 

7,459,799 
2,481,600. 

1,353,936 
2,865,383 
2,530,611 
1,766,792 
921,837 

2,767,134 
3,798,886 
1,710,144 
1,203,482 
3,225,300 

1,763,750 

2,061,507 

518,524 

2,055,432 

763,943 
2,787,167 

971,574 
3,910,059 

769,988 
1,511,220 

713.259 
2,756,475 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



13 



TOTALS OF ASSESSED PROPERTY BY COUNTIES — Continued. 



COUNTIES. 



/ 

Prairie .. 

Pulaski 

Randolph 

Saline 

Scott.. 

Searcy 

Sebastian 

Sevier 

Sharp 

St. Francis 

Stone 

Union 

Van Buren 

Washington 

White 

Woodruff 

Yell 



TOTAL PERSONAL 
PROPERTY. 



1890. 



918,986 

3.^'^75.679 
791,267 

589,330 
584,895 

590,598 

1.934,313 
556,904 

542,373 

820,785 

377,660 

617,883 

420,182 

1,653,058 

1,450,701 

566,721 

1,065,670 



1891. 



710,443 

3,659,851 

725,689 

591-539 
547.302 

563.237 

1,934,753 

572,427 

530,195 
899,366 
350,200 
616,977 

427,031 
1,684,082 
1,405,962 

554,788 
1,107,030 



TOTAL REAL ESTATE. 



1890. 



$ 



i,543'332 

10,298,750 

790,787 

1,109,360 

742,430 
510,720 

5.305,051 
566,028 
820,762 

1,719,506 
332,360 
692,843 

287,537 
2,557,952 
2,569,084 
1,745,846 
1,459,200 



1891. 



$ 



1,610,933 

10,858,637 

816,532 

1,123,440 

714,557 
544,898 

4,812,311 
586,864 
824,898 

1,887,361 

389,232 

757<o33 
305,109 

2,644,941 
2,658,693 
1,722,217 
1,527,190 



GRAND TOTAL REAL AND 
PERSONAL PROPERTY. 



1890. 



$ 2,462,318 

14,174,429 
1,582,054 
1,698,690 

1.327,325 
1,101,318 
7,239,364 
1,122,932 

1,363,135 
2,540,291 

710,020 
1,310,726 

707,719 
4,211,010 

4,019,785 
2,312,567 
2,524,870 



1891. 



$ 



2,321,376 

14,518,488 

1,542,221 

1.714,979 
1,261,859 

1,108,135 

6.747,064 
1,159,291 

1,355,093 
2,786,727 

739,432 
1,374,010 

732,140 
4,329,023 
4,064,655 
2,277,005 
2,634,220 




14 



General Infonnatioti and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



Statement of the number of acres of land in each county subject to taxation, and the 
valuation thereof, the valuation of the town or city lots, and of personal property, for the 
years 1890 and 1891: 



COUNTIES. 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Kenton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead .... 
Hot Spring .... 

Howard 

Independence 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 

Lee 

Lincoln 

Little River... 

Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion 

Miller..... 

Mississippi .... 

Monroe 

Montgomery.. 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 



LAND. 



No. 

of Acres 

1890. 



563.397 
489,683 
112,951 
382,942 
206,089 
308,165 
269,414 
202,361 



490,972 
348,635 
154,439 
335,7" 
466,057 
358,689 
410,930 



No Report 

345,804 
368,404 



448,975 
373,961 
332,053 
145,100 
160,014 

355.979 
331,418 
445,000 
300,485 
230,415 
450,616 
251,802 

397,349 
512,794 
274,840 
265,249 
386,891 



301,599 



342,109 

506,933 
204,442 
138,270 
334,622 

495,131 
424,306 
II 1,058 
376,082 

84,394 
417,892 
210,767 



No. 

of Acres 

1891. 



572,282 
489,968 
119,675 

393,597 
215,282 

322,122 

288,730 

217,608 



492,000 

349,237 
171,478 

340,712 

466,112 

359,259 
410,588 
308,000 
for 1 89 1. 
345,804 
331,523 



484,482 

378,395 
402,189 

189,709 

163,101 

363,629 

332,131 
445,800 

305,013 
232,240 

471,221 

251,802 
397,349 
553*709 
288,113 

275,437 
367,373 



312,360 
344,172 
337,455 
487,043 
261,450 

'43,258 



473.438 . 
351.670 
119,474 
391,285 
93,142 
419,010 
193,280 



Valuation 
1890. 



$ 1,180,590 

1,090,833 

436,653 

1,581,203 

855,191 
448,074 
464,232 

881,375 
800,394 

891,546 

814,735 
372 338 
702,185 
850,814 
1,366,869 
1,101,033 

1,457,570 

1,029,978 

766,240 

477,330 

798,120 

810,335 

1,270,072 

1.377,449 
483,663 

399,879 

553,973 
916,825 

1,200,744 

618,846 

773,977 
2,059,124 

722,000 
1,196,007 
2,123,880 

1.091,343 
561,560 
1,041,123 
1,330,480 
1,214,050 

647,921 
1,564,911 

1,794,572 
832,790 

452,999 
969,070 

1,282,270 
788,179 
214,650 
986,309 
295,318 
668,009 
666,705 

1,585,387 



Valuation 
1891. 



1,422,140 
1,217,572 

460,698 
1,600,390 

926,033 

581,798 
516,695 
887,870 
867,170 
864,562 
648,811 
397,909 
651,853 
837,184 

1,445.513 
1,223,847 

1,525.351 



1,065,704 

592,949 
802,755 

936,380 
1,265,597 

1,425,371 
616,730 
536,892 
637,060 

875,650 

1,244,078 

638,748 

785,166 

1,963.172 
769,000 
1,473,720 
2,206,210 
1,080,682 
717,660 

1,015,923 

1,386,690 

1,169,668 

577,114 

1,473,949 

2,093,185 

770,402 

584,518 

779,560 

1,227,700 

872,642 

211,234 

998,032 

327,345 
686,298 

667,580 

1,490,460 



TOWN OR CITY 
LOTS. 



Valuation 
1890. 



$ 223,320 



32,140 

449,450 

144,075 

61,233 

16,042 

768,974 

31,575 
238,730 
104,205 

56,860 

51,155 
113,602 

290,268 

425,213 



28,030 

93-735 
107,663 
128,134 
174,964 
181,990 
187,474 

117.955 
1,772,085 

15,590 
229,940 
356,765 

91,553 
142,670 

510,146 
40,560 

346,856 
2,073,800 

227,580 
55,920 

224,383 

218,035 
15,690 
13,688 

108,178 

227,570 
31,849 



909,490 

40,925 
185,580 

19,975 



446,059 

19,230 

891,365 



Valuation 
1891. 



$ 



285,160 

39,315 

36,875 
471,895 

154,304 
78,320 
17,760 

660,935 

32-741 
283,808 
141,160 

74.277 
62,808 

196,575 

356,435 
441,380 



POLLS. 



173.993 
126,339 
204,880 
201,931 
178,638 
150,622 
2,473,225 
19,260 

275,095 

381,664; 

103,018 

145,538 

544,881 

44,810 

510,595 
2,322,780 

243,835 
78,510 

227,508 

240, 1 60 

13,755 
12,048 

160,888 

225,143 
31,483 
32,685 

885,780 
67,760 

241,864 
17,637 



477,650 
19,960 

1,077,215 



Num- 
ber 
1890. 



2,543 
2,491 

1,578 
5,261 

2,944 
1,457 
1,348 

3.071 
2,649 

3,927 

2,551 

1.535 
2,095 

3.718 
3,818 
2,120 
4,058 
3,848 
1,980 
1,790 
3,373 

3,235; 
4,006 

3.897 
2,144' 
2,934 
1,407 
2,420 
4.342 

2,307 
2,726 
4,201 
2,505 
3,047 
9,140 

2,998 

1,549 

2,749 

3,824 

2,308: 

1,948 

4.044 

4.143 

3,084 

1,926 

3,226 

2,511 

2,649 

1,474 
2,780 
1,921 

3.375 
1,251 
4,882 



Num- 
ber 
1891. 



2,692 

2,774 
1,669 

5.564 
3.023 

1.494 

1,475 
3,069 

2,659 

3,945 
2,579 
1,658 
2,189 
3.902 
3,710 
2,540 
4,016 

1.755 
1,818 

2,999 
3,286 

4,068 

3,632 
2,230 
2,880 
1,417 
2,723 
4,204 

2.351 
2,484 
4,327 
2,540 
3,168 
8,302 
3.254 

1,75=; 
2,850 

4,389 
2,480 
1,842 
4,021 

4,571 
3.222 

1,979 
3,067 
2,465 
2,912 

1,495 
2,801 

1,888 
3,419 
1.15s 
5.231 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



15 



Statement of the number of acres of land in each county subject to taxation, and the 
valuation thereof, the valuation of the town or city lots, and of personal property, for the 
years 1890 and 1891 — Continued. 





LAND. 


TOWN OR CITY 
LOTS. 


POLLS. 


COUNTIES. 


No. 

of Acres 

1890. 


No. 

of Acres 

1891. 


Valuation 
1890. 


Valuation 
1891. 


Valuation 
1890. 


Valuation 
1891. 


Num- 
ber 
1890. 


Num- 
ber 
1891. 


Pike 






$ 425,025 

717.853 
265,822 

1,458,694 

1,204,710 

2,091,550 

741,442 

755.600 

718,380 

496,045 

2,230,225 

549,108 

610,844 

1,102,286 

322,600 

660,902 

274,322 

1,630,780 

2,108,027 

1,166,394 

1,198,020 


$ 412,659 
676,668 

276,534 

1,409,108 

1,240,895 

2,213,720 

765,068 

761,300 

687,527 

529,873 
i,998;674 

570,839 

569.937 

I.23I-423 

378,342 

649,293 
286,068 
1,717,790 
2,108,677 
1,146,302 
1,304,290 


$ 


$ 5,180 
12,451 


1,560 
935 

T Qt-I 




Poinsett 


453.532 
102,605 
299,980 

392,413 
412,512 
294,170 
319,000 
237,672 
98,141 

3365843 
198,184 

403,740 
335.867 
92,394 
665,323 
119,681 
442,023 
65 1 ,046 
351.746 
352,877 


388,341 
107,943 
308,391 
406,063 
408,834 

304,93s 
323.420 

245.973 
106,954 
360,471 
204,097 
224,617 
346,160 
88,109 
509,916 
124,084 
457.604 
653.340 
352,841 
360,523 


1. 541 
943 


Polk 


11,758 


Pope... 


1.^32 "./"" 

3,883| 3.860 


Prairie 


166,617 

7,166,443 

49.345 
60,700 

24,050 

14,675 

2,942,378 

16,920 


189,432 

7.537.153 
51,464 
69,180 
23.285 
15.025 

2,695.730 
16,025 
39,848 
270,798 
1 0, 890 
71,200 
19,041 

593.364 
550,016 

147,305 
222,900 


Pulaski 


2,330, 2,430 
11,407. 12,046 
2,9or 2,821 
2,321 2,527 
2,2561 2,229 
1,767 1,756 
6,807; 5,994 
1,714 1,961 
2,061. 1,969 
2,990 3,147 


Randolph 

Saline 


Scott 


Searcy ... 


Sebastian 

Sevier 


Shalp 


St. Francis 

Stone 


2,145,922 

9,760 

31.941 

13.215 

597-514 
461,01^7 

147,735 
261,180 


Union 

Van Buren 

Washington.... 
White. .."'. 


1,320 
2,782 
1,628 

5'979 
4,600 

3,237 
3.743 

227,155 


2,913 
1,711 

5.977 
4,838 

3.447 
3.832 


Woodruff 

Yell 




Total 






$71,399,352 


$72,976,204 


H, ^ C Af\'J A '7f\ 


<£--.., »0, tC, 


226,970 






f 


^■'5.403.479 •F-'/./"-'i,i'-'i 



LIVE STOCK AS ASSESSED IN 1891. 



KIND. 



Horses 

Mules.. 
Cattle... 



NUMBER. 



208,670 
134.083 
999.030 



VALUATION. 



$8,555,115 
7,465,338 
6,445,710 



KIND. 



Sheep 

Hogs 

Carriages and Wagons. 



NUMBER. 



238,779 
1,243,488 
112,494 



VALUATION. 



$ 248,479 
1,411,076 
2,420,653 



DEBT. 

By reference to volume i of Preliminary Results of the Eleventh Census Bulletins it will 
be found that Arkansas shows but litde black in the symbols adopted by the Government to 
represent the indebtedness of the States and counties of the general Government. A careful 
analysis of the tables and argument so ably set out in that volume will show a remarkable 
decrease of State and county indebtedness in Arkansas between the years 1880 and 1890. 
This decrease represents actual liquidation of genuine indebtedness and does not spring from 
any decrease growing out of adjudged fraudulent bonds. 

When it is known that the power to tax is limited to a fixed constitutional rate, and 
when it is further considered that nearly all of this rate is needed to meet the ordinary 
expenses of county government, the tremendous value of this decrease of county indebted- 
ness will become more apparent. It indicates (i) a fixed and unalterable determination to 
pay ; (2) a steady increase of resources ; (3) a daring, vigorous body of citizens. 



16 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

Here are the figures as to the indebtedness of. the counties: 



Bonded debt, 1880 $ 1,691,689 

Bonded debt, 1890 1,030,631 

Decrease $ 661,058 

Floating debt, 1880 1,444,060 

Floating debt, 1890 561,951 

Decrease $ 882,109 



Gross debt, 1880 $3,135,749 

Gross debt, 1890 1,592,582 

Decrease $1,543,167 



This shows a decrease of 4g per cent in ten years of county indebtedness. 

The same volume shows that an amount equal to $665,327 of available resources is in 
the various county treasuries of the State. This is equivalent to saying that the entire 
indebtedness of the counties is at present less than one million dollars and is steadily de- 
creasing. 

In fact the large majority of counties are out of debt. Their scrip is at par and they 
have begun a system of county improvements based upon cash payments. Elegant county 
buildings are going up in many counties paid for out of revenues already collected and which 
entail no debt nor interest. 

The following line from page 13 of the volume referred to will show the exact state of 
our county affairs : 

ARKANSAS. 



Gross debt $1,592,582 

Sinking fund 22,567 

Cash on hand 642,760 



Total resources $665,327 

Net debt 927.255 

Annual interest 64,868 



The counties of Texas show a larger sum in the treasury than those of any Southern 
State, while Arkansas has the next largest. 

But if the total indebtedness of the Southern States be considered together it will be 
seen that Arkansas leads the whole section as to gross county debt in comparison with 
available resources. In fact, Arkansas stood in the van in 1880 for both bonded and floating 
county indebtedness. From 1880 to 1890 she decreased her bonded indebtedness 39 per 
cent and her floating indebtedness 61 per cent, and her gross indebtedness 49 per cent. 
While the whole Southern section increased its gross county indebtedness 3 per cent, 
Arkansas has decreased hers full one-half. 

The same creditable process of liquidation is shown in the matter of State finance : 



Bonded debt, 1890 $1,963,100 

Floating debt, 1890 2,832,915 



Available resources $4,782,705 

Net debt I3.309 



See Bulletin 7, page 3. 

These figures show a determination to rid the State and its counties of all debt whether 
of just or unjust parentage and are admirably suited to the devotion, the daring and the 
development of a growing commonwealth. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



17 



COUNTIES AND THEIR AREA. 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter ..... 

Benton. 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun , 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead 

Hot Spring 

Howard 

Independence 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson : 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 



1,062 
927 

545 
891 
672 

755 
575 
659 
760 

905 
568 

558 

693 
825 

493 
668 
582 
614 
672 
676 

733 
802 

623 

672 

649 

622 

617 

591 
742 
626 
629 
736 

547 
619 
840 
612 
497 
574 



Lee 606 

Lincoln 536 

Little River 547 

Logan 642 

Lonoke 762 

Madison 891 

Marion 634 

Miller 603 

Mississippi 696 

Monroe 834 

Montgomery 636 

Nevada 861 

Newton ; 838 

Ouachita 732 

Perry 560 

Phillips 650 

Pike 620 

Poinsett 720 

Polk 935 

Pope 795 

Prairie 658 

Pulaski 883 

Randolph 622 

Saint Francis 612 

Saline 622 

Scott 930 

Searcy 768 

Sebastian 600 

Sevier 547 

Sharp 570 

Stone 619 

Union 15^38 

Van Buren 998 

Washington 927 

White I>I37 

Woodruff 577 

Yell 936 

Total, 53,045 Square Miles. 



SUMMARY OF RAILROAD STATISTICS. 



Total number o\ miles main track 2,164.25 

Total number of miles side track 278.64 



Aggregate value of main track. 

Aggregate value of side track 

Aggregate value of rolling stock 

Aggregate value of buildings 

Aggregate assessed value of all property. 

Average value per mile of all property 

Increase in taxable valuation during the year . 



$14,452,663 00 

471.952 00 

2,926,348 00 

341,313 00 

$18,192,276 00 

$ 8,405 81 

565,562 00 



TAXATION. 

The limits to which taxation may go are fi.xed in the Constitution and are as follows: 

One per centum per annum of the assessed valuation for State taxes. 

One-half of one per centum for county purposes, with an additional one-half per centum to pay indebt- 
edness existing at the time of adopting the Constitution. 

One-half of one per centum (or municipal purposes in cities and towns, with an additional one-half per 
centum to pay indebtedness existing in 1874. 

The State has not levied its limit for many years, the usual levy being about one-half 

the limit, or five mills on the dollar. Counties that have paid their old indebtedness usually 

levy five mills. The average rate of taxation for all purposes throughout the State is about 

fourteen mills on the dollar per annum. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



19 



EDUCATION. 



The Constitution of 1874, the present organic law, made public education by taxation 
perpetual. Along with the growth of population and wealth has gone a greater develop- 
ment of educational facilities. The system has demonstrated its value to the State and is 
to-day more firmly imbedded in the affections of a greater number of citizens than any other 
part of the State's polity. The schools are in every locality open alike to the rich and poor. 
Although taught in separate schools the black child has an equal showing with the white one. 

The enumeration in 1892 was 422,252 between the ages of six and twenty-one. The 
white enumeration was 307,781 ; colored 114,471. The actual enrollment was 251,452, of 
which the whites furnished 187,261 and the blacks 64,191.. These ratios of white to black 
are almost the same as the ratio of white to the black population.^ 

The average attendance for 1892 was 140,445. 

The percentage of average attendance upon enrollment was .56 per centum, something 
more than the same percentage for the same time in New York. 

In percentage of enrollment to population Arkansas in 1890 excelled New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, South Carolina, Georgia, North Dakota, Louisiana, 
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Alaska, Ore- 
gon and California. The only New England State that outranked Arkansas was Maine. 
The per cent of colored enrollment to population (19.11) was greater than that of any New 
England or Middle State except Maine as to its whole enrollment. 

SUMMARY OF ENUMERATION OF THE SCHOLASTIC POPULATION OF ARKANSAS FROM 1869 tO DATE. 



1869-70 176,910 

1870-71 180,274 

1871-72 196,237 

1872-73 194,314 

1873-74 148,128 

1874-75 168,929 

1875-76 168,929 

1876-77 189,130 

1877-78 203,567 

1878-79 216,475 

1879-80 236,600 

1880-1881 247,457 



1881-82 272,841 

1882-83 289,617 

1883-84 304,962 

1884-85 323,943 

1885-86 338,506 

1886-87 358,006 

1887-88 377,736 

1888-S9 388,129 

1889-90 404,379 

1890-91 405,587 

1891-92 418,566 

1892-93 ..422,252 



TABLE SHOWING ENUMERATION BY RACES FROM 1883 TO DATE. 



1883-84 .White 227,533 

1883-84 Colored 76,429 

1884-85 White 247.178 

1884-85 Colored 76,770 

1885-86 White 252,290 

1885-86 Colored 86,216 

1886-87 White 266,188 

1886-87 Colored 91,818 

1887-88 White 279,224 

1887-88 Colored .' 98,512 



1888-89. 
1888-89 



White 288,381 

Colored 99, 74^ 



1889-90 White 297,665 

1889-90 Colored 106,714 

1890-91 White 297,904 

1S90-91 Colored 107,683 

1891-92 White 306,309 

1891-92 Colored 112,176 

1892-93 White 307,781 

1892-93 Colored 114,471 



20 



General Information and Resources of the State vf Arkansas. 



SUMMARY OF ENROLLMENT IN THE SCHOOLS OF ARKANSAS FROM JUNE, 1869, TO DATE. 



1868-69 67,412 

1869-70 107,908 

1870-71 69,927 

1871-72 32,863 

1872-73 59,587 

^873-74 (no report) 

1874-75 ("o report)) 

1875-76 15,890 

^876-77 33,370 

^877-78 33,740 

»?78-79 ^5.049 

1879-80 ^0,973 



1880-81 98,744 

1881-82 117,696 

1882-83 1 12,233 

1883-84 153,216 

1884-85 164,757 

1885-86 175,935 

18S6-87 183,095 

1887-88 202,754 

1888-89 216,152 

1889-90 205,262 

1890-91 242,117 

1891-92 251,452 



TABLE SHOWING ENROLLMENT BY RACES FROM 1883 TO DATE. 



1882-83 White 84,101 

1882-83 Colored 28,132 

1883-84 White 115,648 

1883-84 Colored 37,568' 

1884-85 White 122,296 

1884-85 Colored 42,461 

1885-86 White 129,137 

1885-86 Colored 46,798 

1886-87 White 134,643 

1886-87 Colored 48,452 



1887-88 White 152,184 

1887-88 Colored. 50,570 

188S-89 White 159,770 

1888-89 Colored 56,382 

1889-90 White 154,259 

1889-90 Colored 51,003 

1890-91 White 178,289 

1890-91 Colored 63,830 

1891-92 White 187,261 

1891-92 Colored 64,191 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDIES. 



189I. 

Number studying orthography 188,552 

Number studying reading 168,514 

Number studying mental arithmetic 70,103 

Number studying written arithmetic 84,469 

Number studying English grammar 43,387 

Number studying geography 52,985 

Number studying history 24,973 

Number studying higher branches 3, 610 

Number studying penmanship 97,547 



1892. 

Number studying orthography 203,037 

Number studying reading 187,271 

Number studying mental arithmetic 80,778 

Number studying written arithmetic 97,098 

Number studying English grammar 53,726 

Number studying geography 63,693 

Number studying history 30,784 

Number studying higher branches 4»545 

Number studying penmanship 104,792 



TEACHERS AND THEIR SALARIES. 



TEACHERS. 

Number white male teachers employed, 1892... 3,110 
Number white female teachers employed, 1892. .1,358 

Total white teachers employed, 1892 4,468 

Number colored male teachers employed, 1892.. 880 
Number colored female teachers employed, 1892 293 

Total colored teachers employed, 1892 1,173 

Total teachers employed, 1892 5,641 



SALARIES. 

Average salary for first grade male, 1892 $43 81 

Average salary first grade female, 1892 37 25 

Average salary second grade male, 1892 34 76 

Average salary second grade female, 1892 32 50 

Average salary third grade male, 1892 30 24 

Average salary third grade female, 1892 29 00 



The month represents twenty days. These tables show a gradual increase in the wages 
of every grade of teachers and of each sex. The increase of wage earning is almost in direct 
ratio with teacher improvement. 

Every item indicates a vigor almost unparalleled. 

From the figures adduced it follows that- 



Average wages of all teachers in 1891 was $33 65 

Average wages of all teachers in 1892 was 34 59 

Increase 94 

Average wages of males, 1891 35 12 



Average wages of males, 1892 36 27 

Increase i 15 

Average wages of females, 1891 32 18 

Average wages of females, 1892 32 80 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



21 



From which it appears that the average wages'of males exceeds that of the females by 
only $2.94, if 189 1 be taken as a basis ; and by $3.47 if 1892 be taken. 

The average monthly wages in the towns of New York for 1891 was $33.08, or 55 cents 
less than the average for all classes in Arkansas. 



Average female wages in Massachusetts $44 79 

Excess over Arkansas 11 99 

Michigan average males (1890) 32 31 

Michigan average, females 25 22 

Excess in favor of Arkansas for males 2 81 

Excess in favor of Arkansas for females 6 56 

Tennessee average monthly wages, 1891 31 37 

Arkansas, 1891 33 65 

Excess in favor of Arkansas 2 28 

Mississippi, 1891 27 74 



Excess in favor of Arkansas $ 5 91 

Iowa, 1891, males 37 54 

Excess against Arkansas 2 42 

Iowa, 1891, females 30 52 

Excess in favor of Arkansas i 66 

Ohio, 1890, elementary schools, males 37 00 

Ohio, 1890, elementary schools, females 27 00 

Ohio, 1890, country high schools, males 58 00 

Ohio, 1890, country high schools, females 39 00 



The total number of schoolhouses owned by the State in 1892 was 2,946 with a value 
of Ji, 765, 831. 



•SCHOOL REVENUES. 

The school revenues are drawn from an annual levy of two mills on all the property of 
the State ; a local levy of not exceeding five mills in every district, and a poll tax of one 
dollar. 

These several taxes yielded the following amounts in 1892 : 



State tax $ 321,545 39 

Poll tax 154,728 40 



Local tax $ 600,102 40 

Miscellaneous 10,800 66 

$1,087,236 85 



The expenditures were : 



For teachers' salaries... $907,141 

For houses 4,200 

For building 104,166 



For apparatus $ 12,505 

For commissions 30,077 



Excepting Mississippi, West Virginia and six other Northern States, Arkansas expended 
in 1 89 1 more money on public schools in proportion to the taxed wealth of the State than 
any other State in the Union. 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 

The following exhibit shows at a glance the steady progress of the Southern States in 
the development of common school education. There are no statistics accessible that show 
separate items for the white and colored schools previous to 1876. Since that period the 
enrollment of white pupils has increased 75 per cent, while the white population has in- 
creased little more than 30. The colored enrollment has increased 113 per cent, while the 
colored population has increased less than 25 per cent. The amount of money expended 
from public funds has increased from $11,000,000 to $23,000,000 per annum. 



IS 






1 1 



Jl'l 



II: 



m^^ 



nivi 




-1 
-J 






H 

/^ 

< 

CO 

-1* 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 23 

SIXTEEN FORMER SLAVE STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



COMMON SCHOOL 
ENROLLMENT. 



COLORED. 



YEAR. 



White. 



1876-77 ' 1,827,139 

1877-78 ' 2.034,946 



2,013,684 
2,215,674 
2,234,871 
2,249,263 
2,370,110 
2,546,448 
2,676,911 

2,773- 145 

2,975,773 

3,110,606 

1888-89 1 3.197,830 



1878-79 
1879-80 
1880-81 
1881-82 
1882-83 
1883-84 
1884-85 
1885-86 
1886-87 
1887-88 



Colored. 



571,506 

675.150 

685,942 

784,709 

802,374 

802,982 

817,240 

1,002,313 

1,030,463 

1,048,659 

1,118,556 

1,140,405 

1,213,092 



Normal 


Other Sec- 


Total 


Schools. 


ond y and 
Higher. 


Colored. 


3.785 


4,726 


580,017 


5.236 


7.795 


688.181 


6. 171 


8,253 


700,366 


7,408 


7.996 


800,1 13 


7,621 


8,372 


802,372 


8,509 


9.889 


821,380 


8,509 


9,889 


835,638 


10,771 


13,035 


1,026,119 


8.390 


15,110 


1,053.963 


6, 207 


16,831 


1,071,697 


1,771 


11.577 


1,131,904 


5.439 


12,254 


1,158,098 


7,462 


i8,o6S 


1,238,622 



$ 11.231,073 

1 1,760,214 
12,181,602 

12.475,044 
13.359.784 

14,820,972 

14,324,925 

17.053.467 
17,227,373 
18,439,891 
20,821,999 

21,810,158 
23,226,982 

Total amoun't expended in thirteen years, $216,644,699. (U. S. Education Report, 1888-89.) 

Since 1888-89 there has been expended fully $100,000,000, making a grand total in 

seventeen years of more than $316,000,000. Of this fully 40 per cent was used for the 

education of colored children, a far greater sum than their relative numerical population, or 

their contributions in taxes. The assertion that injustice is or has been done the colored 

children of the South by the white citizens is not borne out by the facts. , 



EX- 
PENDITURES. 



Both Races. 



HOMICIDE. 

It has been charged that homicide is the natural law of the 'South, and especially of 
Arkansas. The following brief selection from the census of 1890 will help to dispel this 
illusion. The number following the name of each State indicates the ratio of homicides in a 
State to a million of its population : 



SOUTHERN STATES. 

South Carolina 139 

Georgia 189 

Florida 289 

Kentucky 236 

'lennessee 168 

Alabama 222 

Mississippi 168 

Louisiana — 293 

Texas 327 



WESTERN GROUP. 

Arkansas - 176 

Kansas I2i 

Montana 340 

Colorado 184 

New Mexico 358 

Arizona 906 

Nevada 896 

Idaho 308 

California 346 



Now, whatever may be the degree of Southern lawlessness it must be conceded that it 
cannot compare with the Western article, and that Arkansas is a highly civilized community 
when compared with Montaha or California. If increase of homicides is any index to the 
prevailing moral sentiment, then Arkansas has a better moral sentiment than Vermont. The 
State of Vermont pushed its ratio of homicides from n in 1880 to 72 in 1890, or 11 8. 18 
percent. Arkansas advanced from 133 in 1880 to 176 in 1890, or 32.33 per cent, or a 
difference of 85.85 per cent in favor of improvement in Arkansas. In fact, the average in- 
crease of percentage in the North Atlantic group of States was 41.38 per cent, as against an 
increase of 32.33 per cent in Arkansas. From this it is evident that the life of every emi- 
grant is nearly twice as secure in Arkansas as it is in California or Montana, and about four 
times that of Nevada. 



24 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

TEMPERANCE. 

This vexed question has for years been the burden of the best thought of the State. It 
is controlled legally in several ways : 

1. By special enactments prohibiting the sale of intoxicants within a radius of from 
three to ten miles of certain churches or schoolhouses. 

2. By the majority vote of the citizens of a county. 

3. By the petition of a majority of the adults in a county or town. Every woman is 
permitted to sign the petition and has an equal voice in the final decision of this matter. 

The combined action of these three laws has almost banished the saloon from the State. 
Whole counties are absolutely free and the moral sentiment of the State is decidedly opposed 
to intemperance and to the open saloon. The officers of the State, counties and towns are 
as a rule sober men. No State in the Union can show a better temperance record, whether 
in law or private life, than Arkansas has shown during the last twenty years. From Little 
Rock to Van Buren, one hundred and sixty miles, there is but one open saloon. Twenty-two 
counties exclude the sale of intoxicants entirely while the greater part of every county is 
under some form of prohibition enactment. 

INCORPORATED COMPANIES. 

Since January i, 1889, there have been four hundred and twenty manufacturing associ- 
ations formed with capital stocks ranging from five thousand dollars, the least, to one million 
dollars, the greatest. The usual capital stock being fifty thousand dollars. 



BANKS. 

Since January i, 1889, fifty-four banks have been incorporated with paid up capital 
stock amounting to more than three millions of dollars. These institutions added to the 
older banks give ample protection to depositors and furnish the means for a great commer- 
cial activity. 

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS. 

Besides the regular banks there have been established since January i, 1889, about 
forty-five building and loan companies with a capital of more than twenty millions of dol- 
lars. This vast amount is virtually invested in thousands of modern homes abounding in joy 
and numberless comforts. 

LANDS. 

The varying character of our lands and their wonderful adaptability are well shown in 
the following careful estimate taken from "Arkansas," a pamphlet issued by the Arkansas 
Bureau of Mining, Manufacturing and Agriculture : 



No. of acres 33,500,000 

No. of acres of timber lands 19,000,000 

No. of acres under cultivation 9,500,000 

No. of acres adapted to fruit growing ... 10,000,000 
No. of acres of Government lands 4,000,000 



No. of acres of State lands 1,364,022 

No. of acres of coal lands 2,500,000 

No. of acres of iron ore lands 1,500,000 

No. of acres of prairie land 1,800,000 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



25 



The following statement from the last report of Hon. C. B. Myers, Land Commissioner 
of Arkansas, will show the quantity of land now belonging to the State : 



CLASS. — FoRFKiTED Lands. 



Quality passed through overdue tax suits under acts of 1881, now subject to taxation or sale) 
at $1.25 per acre j 

Quality subject to donation or sale at $1.25 per acre, upon which no suit was ever brought) 
under the overdue tax acts of 1881 ( 

Vacant swamp lands 

Internal improvement lands 

Seminary lands 

Saline lands ; 

Real Estate Bank lands 

Total number of acres 



Acres. 



290,160.06 

681,800.00 

53,870.05 

26,293.41 

514-36 

11,415-71 
5,988,12 



1,070,041.65 



CEREALS. 

The following figures from the census of 1890 show the production of the cereals in 
Arkansas as compared with several other States. 

AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE. 



STATES. 



Arkansas 

Wyoming 

Montana 

Idaho 

Utah 

Colorado 

New Mexico... 

Arizona 

Georgia 

Alabama 



Indian 
Corn. 



20.61 

12.73 
13.96 

18.13 
14.66 
12.67 
20.45 
19.06 

14.14 



Oats. 



14.50 

27-39 
29.10 
26.70 
26.29 
28.59 
22.13 
23.10 
9.22 
9-37 



Rye. 



6.15 



4.15 
6.67 



Wheat. 



6.80 



5-58 
5.26 



STATES. 



Florida 

Delaware 

North Dakota... 
South Dakota ... 
North Carolina 
South Carolina. 

Virginia 

Oregon 

Washington 



Indian 
Corn. 


Oats. 


Rye. 


9-77 


9-32 


15-70 


17.72 


19.76 


«-55 


15-35 


14-32 


7.78 


17.46 


12.87 


7.06 


10.92 


«-33 


4.90 


10.23 


9.80 


4.19 


16.98 


11.49 


7.63 


19.68 


27.20 


9-23 


^(^•?,2, 


3492 


10.88 



Wheat, 



9.06 
15.91 
9-74 
7-32 
6.44 

3-70 
10.72 
16.81 
17-03 



ACTUAL YIELD IN 1889. 



Indian corn 1 i'6f>443 acres 

i 33j982,3i8 bushels. 

Oats \ 288,332 acres. 

J 4,180,877 bushels. 

Rye \ ^'47° acres. 

■' J I5>i8i bushels. 



Wheat I 

Barley I 

Buckwheat I 



140,464 


acres. 


955,668 


bushels 


106 


acres. 


904 


bushels 


388 


acres. 


5.074 


bushels 



ACTUAL YIELD OF CORN IN SEVERAL STATES IN 1889. 



Arkansas 33,982,318 bu. 

Virginia 27,154,633 " 

Georgia 29,261,422 •' 

South Carolina 13,770,417 " 

Alabama 30,073,036 " 

North Carolina 25,783,620 »' 

Florida 3,701,264 '* 

West Virginia 13,730,506 *' 

Maine 380,662 " 

Delaware 3,097,164 " 



New Hampshire 988,806 bu. 

Vermont 1,700,688 " 

Rhode Island 253,810 " 

Massachusetts 1,330,101 " 

Connecticut 1,471,979 " 

California 2,381,270 " 

Michigan 28,785,579 '« 

Colorado 1,511,907 " 

New Mexico 583,489 " 

Minnesota 24,696,446 " 



Arizona 

North Dakota. 

Oregon 

Washington .... 

Wyoming 

Montana 

Idaho 

Utah 

Nevada , 



82,535 bu 
183,929 «' 
238,203 " 

156,413 
25,162 
14,225 
24,095 
84,760 " 
6,540 " 



It will be seen that Arkansas leads all that are named. 



26 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



SUMMARY OF CEREAL PRODUCTION OF ARKANSAS IN 1889. 



COUNTIES. 



Total . 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Benton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead 

Hot Spring 

Howard 

Independence 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 

Lee 

Lincoln 

Little River... 

Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion 

Miller 

Mississippi 

Monroe 

Montgomery... 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 

Pike 

Poinsett 

Polk 

Pope 



INDIAN CORN. 



Acres. 



1,648,44: 



14,458 

17.759 
14.421 
59.337 
34. 294 
12.653 

13.125 

33.369 

6,166 

29,121 

22,174 

14-339 
16,346 

35.074 
24,038 

19.143 
29,500 

8,864 
7.523 

13.451 
8.325 

20, 799 

29.387 
35.253 
17,651 
11,811 

15.197 

22,955 

34.344 
16.814 
24, 1 66 

36,199 
28,207 
23,681 
20.728 
27,925 
10,123 
21,612 
16,181 
8,105 
13.835 

35.915 
24,428 

39,354 
19,518 

17.937 
12.534 
18,441 
15,606 
28,246 
18,199 
24,152 

9,176 
22,961 
1 7, 007 

6,191 

19.715 
32.360 



Bushels. 



13,982,318 



259,898 
333.170 
336,565 
1,340,329 
834,100 
182,992 
167,186 
844,743 
117,943 
477,226 
484,540 
290,112 
238, 200 
419,905 
496,401 

442,723 
709, 182 
209,412 
147,674 
183,256 
194,646 

344.335 
556,324 
744,816 
430,907 
206, 549 
216,444 
455.667 
541,831 
329,408 
413.203 
89 1 , 044 

597,897 
568,131 
467,388 
65 1 , 004 
155.067 
536,374 
357,612 
152,658 
243,806 
828,359 
501,274 
941,099 
433,250 

290,389 
464,671 
304,669 

315.671 
381.503 
381,419 
288,720 

210,555 
488,152 

304,381 

148,199 

365.783 

718,157 



OATS. 



Acres. 



288,332 



1,392 

930 

5.324 

23.490 

9, 609 

1 , 506 

1,352 

9.789 

153 

2,715 
1,249 

3.370 
1,910 
2,244 

3.649 
2,609 

5.563 

23 

314 

1,721 

89 

2,790 

5.502 

10,228 

6.751 
2,232 

2,081 
2, 161 
3.978 
2,294 
3.142 
6,907 
8,129 

743 
580 

7,197 
380 

3,510 

398 

150 

866 

11,283 

3,907 
8,142 

3,495 

1,397 

114 

458 
2,056 

3' 444 

2,535 
1,114 
1,502 

282 
2,647 

3,636 
5.544 



Bushels. 



4,180,877 



29,259 

8.336 
101,174 

451,736 

192,210 

13,706 

10,390 

188,345 

1,577 

35.621 

21,098 

45.250 
19,036 
16,812 

45.893 
28,064 

78,088 

290 

4.133 

13.346 

524 

29. 740 

69,808 

137,094 

105,794 

32,119 

15,499 
29,699 
46,429 
27,608 

31,889 

77,618 

102,996 

13,447 

5.256 

102,953 

4.703 

44.003 

8,400 

1,918 

1 2, 363 

157,599 

54.735 
120,224 

60,980 

13,179 

2.950 

9.163 

26,236 

37,961 

38.657 

9,634 

24,214 

2.570 
29,712 

6.323 
42,922 
64,190 



WHEAT. 



Acres. 



140,464 



59 
2 

4,171 

21,106 

10,146 

18 



7,528 



no 

1,734 

373 

4 

10 

1,160 

480 

1,142 



12 

18 



65 

933 

2,629 

3,011 
561 



1,314 
291 

157 

817 

2,307 

2,703 
92 



1,538 

2 

1.053 



23 

3.512 

28 

9.583 
4,649 



63 
1,386 

58 
3,214 



432 
421 



2,401 
2,852 



Bushels. 



955.668 



733 

15 
27.026 

1 62, 639 

64, 629 

8d 



48,767 



555 
14,028 

1,670 

50 
250 

5.443 
3.264 
5,941 



80 
146 



233 

5.054 
1 2, 040 

17,172 
2,448 



9,550 
1,098 
1,278 

3,725 
12,137 
13,256 

1,067 



9.337 

30 

7,461 



424 
17.932 

198 
69, 1 24 
26,811 



681 

7,604 

371 
20,484 



2,435 
1,723 



11,668 
15.805 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 27 

SUMMARY OF CEREAL PRODUCTION OF ARKANSAS IN 1889— Continued. 



COUNTIES. 



Prairie 

Pulaski 

Randolph ... 
St. Francis. 

Saline 

Scott 

Searcy 

Sebastian ... 

Sevier 

Sharp 



Stone 

Union 

Van Buren . 
Washington 

White 

Woodruff .... 
Yell 



INDIAN 


CORN. 


OATS. 


WHEAT. 


Acres. 


Bushels. 


Acres. 


Bushels. 


Acres. 


Bushels. 


14.984 


296,448 


2,061 


33.917 


207 


2,679 


20,326 


454.559 


2,942 


41,818 


39 


700 


33> 048 


773.996 


7.137 


104,294 


3.540 


22,269 


11,048 


207,466 


570 


9.547 






i7»527 


324,244 


2,753 


31.386 


140 


855 


22,576 


477,690 


6,520 


83.390 


1,203 


6,348 


18,230 


419,800 


8,412 


52,152 


3.937 


24.947 


34.237 


793.298 


10,644 


154,842 


2,040 


11,411 


18,416 


338,621 


1,184 


10,780 


538 


2,537 


22,527 


479,268 


7,122 


86,645 


2,486 


12,385 


12,344 


312,516 


2,605 


46,402 


1,524 


8,782 


30.437 


350,227 


2,042 


13,166 


44 


269 


18,616 


350,801 


4.452 


50,273 


1,212 


5.623 


70,828 


1,832,189 


21,460 


403,678 


26,511 


236,659 


34.171 


613,868 


6,868 


80,295 


190 


846 


14,890 


378,978 


133 


2,514 


10 


o¥> 


29.045 


641.430 


5.448 


67,305 


2,675 


12,861 



In Arkansas the total area in cereals in 1889 was 2,080,203 acres, as compared with 1,672,446 acres in 
1879. There was an increase of 350,133 acres in the area devoted to corn, and 121,819 acres in the area in 
oats. On the other hand, there was a decrease of 63,620 acres in the area devoted to wheat. 





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General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



29 



COTTON. 

SUMMARY OF BALES COTTON RAISED IN ARKANSAS IN 1879 AND 1889. 



COUNTIES. 



Total 



Arkansas 

Ashley 

Baxter 

Benton 

Boone 

Bradley 

Calhoun 

Carroll 

Chicot 

Clark 

Clay 

Cleburne 

Cleveland (*). 

Columbia 

Conway 

Craighead 

Crawford 

Crittenden 

Cross 

Dallas 

Desha 

Drew 

Faulkner 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Garland... 

Grant 

Greene 

Hempstead 

Hot Spring 

Howard 

Independence . 

Izard 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Lafayette 

Lawrence 

Lee 

Lincoln 

Little River 

Logan 

Lonoke 

Madison 

Marion 

Miller 

Mississippi 

Monroe 

Montgomery .... 

Nevada 

Newton 

Ouachita 

Perry 

Phillips 

Pike 

Poinsett 



1889. 



Acres. 



1,700,612 



Bales. 



691,423 



13,718 


7,197 


30,633 


17,246 


8,495 


3,467 


28 


10 


7,461 


2,377 


14,970 


6,218 


15,564 


5-273 


1,230 


289 


33,624 


21,480 


28,566 


11,190 


7,392 


2,059 


7,800 


2,275 


22,376 


9,018 


45,733 


13,352 


37^I49 


12,062 


10,686 


3,838 


35,069 


13-375 


44,309 


19,186 


11,262 


4,656 


15,039 


5-791 


26,941 


16,641 


38,398 


17,609 


34,381 


12,141 


32,342 


10,954 


9,116 


2,484 


2,725 


1,011 


13,956 


5.335 


9,330 


2,421 


44,068 


15-985 


10,667 


4,092 


22,952 


8,521 


30,230 


9,651 


15,069 


4,235 


33,446 


12,594 


90,996 


47-341 


21,750 


7,667 


15,193 


5.767 


15,191 


4,727 


65,864 


25,278 


18,330 


9,112 


16,733 


7,252 


36,431 


14,476 


38,651 


18,972 


20 


18 


8,211 


2,780 


23,623 


8,970 


31,734 


14,648 


34,144 


18,989 


7,316 


2,397 


31,598 


10,588 


4,289 


1,480 


30,757 


10,541 


11,219 


4,252 


64,142 


29,923 


13,531 


4-831 


3,534 


1,592 



1879. 



Acres. 



1,042,976 



12,611 

19,555 

4,798 

286 

5-095 
12,221 

13,377 

982 

26,941 

25,092 

4.239 



Bales. 



608,256 



8,508 

",371 
2,879 

126 

2,686 

4,900 

5,370 

502 

25,338 

13-924 

2,307 



15,462 


6,146 


32-427 


13,039 


15-424 


9,096 


7,246 


4.374 


16,145 


8,980 


24,413 


16,039 


7,607 


4,768 


14,306 


6,157 


21,159 


18,103 


21,796 


! 9,964 


15.749 


8,692 


16,205 


9,268 


3,994 


"2,438 


993 


534 


9,680 


3-999 


6,886 


3-7" 


27,142 


13-985 


8,068 


3,755 


12,259 


7-051 


19,602 


11,156 


9,029 


4,800 


21,718 


13-895 


45-426 


34,588 


1 2, 2 1 7 


7-769 


10,611 


6.339 


10,768 


6,480 


33,009 


21,147 


17-519 


11,563 


10,368 


7,116 


16,377 


9,752 


20,910 


11,704 


255 


129 


7,116 


3,925 


19,111 


11,643 


13.326 


10,430 


22,017 


14,106 


3-512 


1. 819 


23,925 


10,520 


2,602 


1.406 


23.855 


8,849 


5,082 


3.314 


42,654 


29,070 


7-341 


3,787 


2,373 


1,514 



Dorsey County 1879. 



30 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

SUMMARY OF BALES COTTON RAISED IN ARKANSAS, ETC.— Continued. 



COUNTIES. 



Polk 

Pope 

Prairie 

Pulaski 

Randolph ... 
St. Francis 

Saline 

Scott 

Searcy 

Sebastian ... 

Sevier 

Sharp 

Stone ,. 

Union 

Van Buren.. 
Washington 

White 

Woodruff .... 
Yell 



1889. 



Acres. 



9,662 
31,288 
20, 802 
40,564 
18,194 
26,828 
13.263 

15.521 
6,689 
30,217 
15,801 
14,138 
5.808 
40,272 
10,603 

509 
33,806 

38,834 
29.830 



Bales. 



2,831 
11,272 

9,587 
21,485 

4.905 
11,602 

5.774 

6,415 

2,405 

11.778 

5.635 

3.643 

1,858 

12,063 

3.156 

140 

11,514 

17.453 
12,273 



1879. 



Acres. 



4,230 

15,062 

12,124 

29,097 

11,028 

11,857 

8,846 

8,867 

4,320 

19,722 

7,283 

8.455 
3,656 

30,136 

7,084 

302 

23.304 
18,124 
16,598 



Bales. 



2,061 
8,700 

6,977 

.20,439 

6,248 

5,966 

5.075 
4,826 

2,464 

II, n 2 

4,075 
4.350 
2,049 
11,013 
3.377 

133 
11,821 
12,311 
10,428 



SUMMARY OF BALES COTTON RAISED BY STATES. 



STATES. 


Acres. 


Bales. 1 

i 


STATE. 


Acres. 


Bales. 


North Carolina 


1,747,206 

1,987,651 

3,345,526 

227,370 

745.176 


336,245 

746,798 

1,191,919 

57,928 

189,072 


Alabama 


2,761,771 
2,882,499 
1,270,885 
1,700,612 

3.932,755 


915,414 
1,154,406 

659,583 
691,423 

1.470,353 


South Carolina 


Mississippi 

Louisiana 


Georgia 


Florida 


Arkansas 

Texas . ... 


Tennessee 







From these figures it appears that Arkansas stands second in actual yield per acre, the 
percentages of yield being : 



STATES. 



North Carolina 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Tennessee 

Alabama 

Kentucky 




STATES. 



Mississippi 
Louisiana .. 
Arkansas .... 

Texas 

Missouri .... 
Virginia 



Bales. 



40 

52 
41 

37 
26 

14 



flAx. 

The following table shows rank of the State in several important details as to -the flax industry 



Acreage 

Production of seed 
Production of fibre 




Total value of products 

Average yield of seed per acre 

Average value of products per acre 



Rank. 



28 
20 
22 



The industry is carried on to a limited extent in Desha, Madison and Prairie Counties. 




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32 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



HORSES, MULES AND ASSES. 



Horses on hand 1890 186,867 I Mules 124,888 1 Asses 1,600 

Twenty-eight States and territories produced a smaller number of horses, and forty-one 
a smaller number of mules. The States which outrank Arkansas in production of mules are 
Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. 

TOBACCO. 

There were 5,448 planters of tobacco in 1890 with an area of 1,875 acres in cultivation. 
The crop yielded 954,640 pounds valued at $89,862. Average yield per acre 509 pounds. 
The State ranks 16 in acreage and production, 21 as to average yield per acre, 17 as to 
value of product, 18 as to average value per pound and 8 as to number of planters. Every 
county in the State except Lee was reported in 1890 as cultivating tobacco. 

NURSERIES. 

In 1890 there were 6S nurseries, using 767 acres of land at a value of $38.90 per acre, 
or a total value of $80,410. The total capital invested that year was ^119,800; 421 acres 
were devoted to the growth of trees; 84 to apple, 21 to cherry, 22 to peach, 35 to pear, 32 
to plum, 5 to other trees; 34 to grape vines, 128 to strawberries, 19 to raspberries, 13 to 
blackberries and 28 to miscellaneous plants; 11,900 one-year apple trees were grown to the 
acre, which sold at the average wholesale price of $5.22 per 100. 



12,000 apricots 


trees 


pe 


r acre 


@ $ 


7 00 per 100. 


11,000 


quince 




@ $ 


8 00 per ICO. 


10,000 cherry 


n 




u 


('^ 


8 00 per 100. 


I5'57i 


grape vines 




(«^ 


4 07 per 100. 


13,000 peach 


ii 




ii 


@ 


5 37 per 100. 


44,000 


strawberries 




@ 


28 per 100. 


10,000 pear 


(< 




ii 


(d> 


13 50 per 100. 


20,000 


raspberries 




(d> 


60 per 100. 


10,600 plum 


ii 




ii 


@ 


II 32 per 100. 


20,000 


blackberries 




@ 


85 per 100. 



FLORISTS. 

Arkansas has ten establishments of this kind, cultivating twenty acres with a value of 
$30,800. In 1890 these establishments propagated 26,750 roses and 25,000 hardy plants. 
All other plants aggregated 213,750. The total plant sale reached 1^21,250, and the cut 
flowers sold for $2,875. 

The figures for the full cash value per acre on all crops taken together are not yet 
collated, but the following taken from the first Bulletin of the Arkansas Bureau as gathered 
from the census of 1880 has not lost any of its force, and will doubtlessly be strengthened 
by the decade just passed : 



Maine $13 51 

New Hampshire 13 56 

Vermont 11 60 

Connecticut 16 82 

New York 14 15 

New Jersey 18 05 

Pennsylvania 17 68 

Delaware 15 80 

Maryland 17 82 

Virginia 10 91 

North Carolina 10 79 

South Carolina 10 09 



Georgia $10 35 

Florida 8 52 

Alabama 13 49 

Mississippi 14 76 

Louisiana 22 40 

Arkansas 20 40 

Tennessee 12 39 

West Virginia. 12 74 

Kentucky 13 58 

Ohio 15 58 

Michigan 18 96 

Indiana 14 66 



Illinois $12 

Wisconsin 13 

Minnesota 10 29 

Iowa 8 88 

Missouri 10 

Kansas 9 



47 
80 



78 
II 



Nebraska 8 60 

California 17 18 

Oregon 17 11 

Texas 14 69 

Nevada, Colorado and the 

Territories 16 13 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 33 

MINERAL WATERS. 

There are hundreds of mineral springs in Arkansas aside from the great resorts at Hot 
Springs, Eureka Springs and Mammoth Springs. Only three report the preparation of 
waters for commercial purposes. The product bottled in 1889 reached 110,200 gallons and 
yielded a value of $10,020. The capital invested in the business amounted to $12,525, and 
paid a wage sum of $3,690. The greater value of these Springs as health resorts, scattered 
as they are over more than twenty counties, makes the lesser work of bottling their waters 
for sale a comparatively small amount. The annual expenditure of money by the visitors at 
Hot Springs reaches the enormous sum of $10,000,000. The three reporting springs are 
the Arkansas Lithia Springs of Hope, Fairchild Potash Sulphur Springs of Potash Sulphur, 
and the Mountain Valley Springs of Mountain Valley. Other springs are commercially 
engaged but no report has been made. A true report would place the State among the 
leaders of those who prepare mineral waters for sale. For great spring resorts and visitors 
no State in the Union surpasses Arkansas. 

LIMESTONE. 

The industry has hardly opened. The value of the product in 1889 was $18,360 ; the 
capital employed $32,531. The per cent of profit on the capital employed was 12.05 P^^^ 
cent, and on the value of the product 21.35 P^^ cent. The per centum of wages to ex- 
penses was 68.21, and to total value 53.61. With a greater, transportation this will become 
a great source of wealth. Seven quarries produced 18,760 cubic feet for building purposes, 
valued at $18,360, and 37,600 barrels of lime, valued at $14,600. 

GRANITE. 

The immense beds of this stone are now attracting general attention. Whether as pav- 
ing stone or as building material, the Arkansas granite is unsurpassed. The splendid court- 
house at Little Rock is a monument to this beautiful stone. Large quantities have been used 
for paving purposes in Louisville, Ky., and Little Rock. Several large quarries near Little 
Rock are doing a handsome business. The census of 1890 says: "Arkansas, though 
holding next to the last place in the list of States for 1889, will doubtless show a much 
greater output in the course of a few years owing to developments already made in the 
vicinity of Little Rock of what is known as Fourche Mountain granite, which is, strictly 
speaking, syenite." 

USES OF BLUE GRANITE. 

The blue granite (pulaskite) has already been quarried to a considerable extent both as 
a building stone and as a material for roads, either in the form of Belgian blocks for streets 
or of crushed stone for macadamized highways. As a building stone it has been used very 
largely in the form of window and door-sills, window-caps, water-tables, stone steps, and 
foundation materials, and has also been used as the principal wall stone in several large 
edifices. ' 

The Pulaski County courthouse on the corner of Second and Spring Streets, Little Rock, 
is built above the basement of blue granite (pulaskite) trimmed with limestone. The base- 
ment is constructed of the brown granite (dike rock). This building is tasteful and the 
contrast between the different stones used in its construction is very pleasing. 

The Roman Catholic cathedral on the corner of Seventh and Louisiana Streets, Little 



34 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

Rock, is built partly of the blue and partly of the brown granite, but the- two stones are 
mingled in such a way, as to give a somewhat mottled appearance to the building. It is, 
therefore, not as handsome a building as would have been produced had either rock been 
used alone. 

The Dallas County courthouse in Dallas, Texas, is built in part of the blue granite of 
Arkansas and is already so far completed as to show that it will be an extremely handsome 
building. Several other buildings in Dallas are built in part of the Arkansas stone. 

The First Methodist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, is built mostly of the blue granite^ 
and this material has been extensively used in the construction of a large brewery in the 
same city. 

The stone appears in many store fronts, retaining walls, bridge piers and abutments 
throughout the State, and has also been much used for such minor purposes as hitching and 
gateposts and mounting blocks. 

Thousands of tons of this rock have been quarried for Belgian blocks, and have been 
shipped to many of the neighboring cities, as Louisville, Memphis, etc., as well as having 
been used in Little Rock itself. No better stone can be conceived of for this purpose, for it 
fulfills all the requirements, that are made of such material. It is strong enough to with- 
stand any blows it may receive and at the same time is hard enough to resist the wear to 
which it may be subjected, better than any known granite or syenite. It does not become 
smooth and slippery under continual wear as paving blocks consisting of only one mineral or 
as very fine-grained constituents are known to do. 

BAUXITE. 

This important mineral, or ore, is found in Arkansas in the neighborhood of the gran- 
ites and in the tertiary areas. It has been found in Saline and Pulaski Counties, and covers 
a known area of 640 acres. 

The following is a copy of the special report of State Geologist Branner to the Governor, 
and one of the most important ever made : 



THE REPORT. 

' OK Arkansas, \ 

:k, Ark., Jan. 7, 1891. j 



Geological Survey ok Arkansas, 
Little Roci 
7'(7 his Excellency, J. P. Eagle, Govet-nor : 

Sir — The field work of the geological survey having been suspended, the facts given below, which appear 
to be of more than usual importance, are made known without waiting for the complete report, in which they 
will be treated in detail. This brief preliminary statement refers only to the survey's work upon kaolin and 
kindred deposits. Most of it relates to the bauxite deposits, but inasmuch as frequent inquiries are made 
for kaolin, and as the survey does not feel at liberty to give information regarding any of these matters prior 
to its publication, a word of general information is added regarding our kaolin beds. 

BAUXITE DEPOSITS. 

It is found that we have in Arkansas, in Saline and Pulaski Counties, a mineral that is used in the man- 
ufacture of aluminum, a metal of great and rapidly increasing importance, as well as for other useful pur- 
poses. This is the mineral bauxite (bozite), sometimes called "honey-comb rock," through the region in 
which it occurs in this State. 

Bauxite is not a common mineral in any part of the world, and as it has a spongy earthy appearance, 
and IS very light, there is nothing about it to attract the attention, and this is probably the reason it has been 
so long overlooked. In order that there may be no mistake about its identity, samples of the common varie- 
ties have been deposited with the Commissioner of Agriculture in the Statehouse. 



GeJieral Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 35 

In some places bauxite has been prospected upon with a view to using it as an iron ore; in others, so 
little has been thought of it that it has been quarried and used for building roads. In most cases the exact 
thickness of the deposits has not been determined, but in general, it varies [from a few feet to over forty feet 
in thickness; it is thought safe to place its average thickness at about fifteen feet. Like all bauxite, it varies 
considerably in composition, and, in a general way, its value depends uponfits having a high percentage of 
alumina, and low percentage of iron and silica. A few of the analyses made^by the survey are therefore 
given. In order that some opinion may be formed of its value, I give briefly the most important uses to 
which bauxite is or may be put. Bauxite is available for the following purposes : 

1. The manufacture of aluminum. 

2. The manufacture of the highest grades of refractory materials, and for increasing the refractoriness 
of fire clays. 

3. The manufacture of the highest grades of alum and aluminate of soda used in dyeing and calico 
printing. 

The studies made by the geological survey of the occurrence of this mineral in Arkansas and in other 
parts of the world lead to the following general conclusions, which may be of value in judging of the import- 
ance of these discoveries, and in seeking deposits other than those mentioned in the list below : 

I. Bauxite occurs in Arkansas only in tertiary areas and in the neighborhood of eruptive rocks (granites). 

II. Inasmuch as sedimentary beds overlie or have overlain the bauxite, it is probable that there are 
deposits in the vicinity of our eruptive rocks not yet uncovered by the natural process of erosion. 

III. It occurs in irregular deposits whose thickness and extent are determinable only by direct meth- 
ods of examination. ' 

VI. In the Little Rock region it has thus far been found only at and below the elevation of 300 feet 
above tide level. 

V. The Arkansas bauxite beds are known to cover a total area of about 640 acres in Saline and Pulaski 
Counties. 

VI. All bauxites vary considerable in color, character, composition and value. 

VII. Although some varieties contain a high percentage of iron, none of them have any value as iron 
ores. (This is the pisolitic iron ore). 

VIII. With the cxcep ion of a single bed in Georgia, the Arkansas deposits of bauxites are the only 
ones thus far discovered in the United States, and such deposits are nowhere abundant, so far as is 
now known. 

Below is a list of the lands upon which bauxite has been found by the geological survey. This list does 
not purport to be complete, for there are doubtless deposits in Saline and Pulaski Counties other than those 
mentioned. The survey has had so much to do that it has not been possible to locate all the occurrences. 

THE IJTTLE ROCK REGION. 

IN TOWNSHIP I NORTH, RANGE 12 WEST. 

Section 24. It occurs on the northeast quarter, at the middle of the south side of this section. The 
bed is cut by the Little Rock Sweet Home turnpike near the south base of P"ourche Mountain and the bauxite 
has been used in building the pike. The following is an analysis of a sample from this locality: 

Silica 10.13 psi' cent. 

Alumina 55-59 P^i" cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 6.08 per cent. 

"Water 28.99 per cent. 

In this same section it covers a large part of the southeast half of the forty acre tract upon which Hon. 
C. C. Bliss' house stands. 

Section 25. It is exposed on the middle of the west side of the northeast quarter, in the edge of the field 
west of the Confederate Home. From this point the deposit seems to extend southwest by west, along the 
foot of the granite ridge. 

A well dug on lot 11 in the village of Ridgewood passed through seven feet of bauxite. 
It occurs also at the southwest corner of section 25. It occurs again an eighth of a mile due south of 
the center of section 25, near the road and in the field to the northwest of this point. Due southwest from 
the center of section 25, and less than a quarter of a mile away, it outcrops in the top of a hill, and is exposed 
at several places around its summit. 



6 General Information and Resonrces of the State of Arkansas. 



Section 26. At the middle of the north side of this section, principally in the northeast of the northwest, 
and also extending into the section just north of it there is another deposit. 

Section 36. On the northwest corner of this section bauxite is exposed about the brow of the hill west of 
Mr. Tarplay's. 

An average sample from this locality gave the following upon analysis: 

Silica 11.48 per cent. 

Alumina -37-62 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 1.83 per cent. 

Water 28.63 per cent. 

IN TOWNSHIP I SOUTH, RANGE 12 WEST. 

There are two exposures on the southwest of the southwest of section 4, near the turnpike. One of them 
is on the summit of the little hill 100 feet west of the pike, just half a mile north of its southern end; the 
other is about 600 feet south of the first, on the west side of the road, and less than thirty feet from it. In 
section 5, near the center of the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter, it is exposed. Again on the 
south half of the southeast quarter of section 5 on the hill east of Littlejohn's. 

Four exposures are known on section 9, as follows: First, at the center of the west side of the northeast 
quarter, just north of where the "middle Pine Bluff road" joins the turnpike. The beds here are over twenty 
feet thick. Second, about fifty feet west of the junction of the pike with the Pine Bluff road. Third, west of 
the Pine Bluff road on the southeast of the southwest. Fourth, west of the Pine Bluff road in the northeast 
of the southwest. 

THE MABELVALE REGION. 

The deposits known as the Mabelvale region are all in township i south, range 13 west, as follows: 

On section 2, in the southwest of the southeast. This is near the line between sections 2 and 11. 

On section 10, east of the house of J. W. Hopkins, on the east half of the northwest quarter, and also on 
the northeast of the northeast quarter. The road running east, southeast from Mabelvale, passes over the 
latter deposits about half a mile from the railway station. 

On section 11 the deposit mentioned as occurring on section 2 seems to extend into section 11 for a 
short distance. 

On section 12 it occurs on the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter. 

THE SALINE COUNTY REGION. 

The exposures in the Saline County area are all, so far as they are now known, in township 2 south, 
range 14 west, as follows: 

On section i a very ferruginous variety occurs on the northwest quarter. This deposit lies along the 
line between sections i and 2, and it may extend into the latter section. 

On section 2 about half a mile north of where the Camden and Little Rock road crosses Hurricane 
Creek is a ferruginous deposit of bauxite. There is some doubt about the exact location of this bed. 

On section 3 it occurs on the southeast of the southwest, where it has been opened up for iron ore. 
Two samples from this locality have tlie following composition: 

BLACK VARIETY. 

Silica 5. 1 1 per cent. 

Alumina 55-89 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 19-45 per cent. 

Water 17-39 per cent. 

RED VARIETY. ' 

Silica 4 89 per cent. 

Alumnia 46 44 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 22.15 per cent. 

Water 26.68 per cent. 

On sections 9 and 10 the deposits are red, brown and cream colored. They lie on the southwest of the 
southwest of 10 and extend into the southeast corner of g. It has been opened up for iron. A sample of 
the red variety from section 9 was analyzed with the following result. 

. Silica 3.34 per cent. 

Alumina :.. ..58.60 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 9. 11 percent. 

Water 28.63 per cent. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 37 

On section 14 it is exposed on the northeast quarter and it appears to form a continuous deposit running 
toward the southwest, and ending near the center of the section. It seems to have been struck also in dig- 
ging a well on the northeast of the southwest of this section. 

On section 15 the beds of section 10 seem to extend into the northwest quarter of section 15. See 
description of section 10. 

On section 16 it covers a large part of the eastern half of this section, being in places, more than 
thirty feet thick. 

On section 22 it occurs in the northwest of the southeast. 

On section 23 it extends through the northern tier of forties, from near the middle of the northeast of 
the northeast to a little west of the northeast of the northwest. It occurs also on the southwest quarter of this 
section. 

On section 25 it is found on the northeast of the northwest, a quarter of a mile south of J. Childress' house. 

KAOLIN DEPOSITS. 

Kaolin is known to occur in Pike, Pulaski, Saline and Ouachita Counties. The Pike County beds are on 
Vaughan's Creek, in township 8 south, range 24 west, section 19. So far as these beds have been prospected 
they are too thin (two feet) and too much stained with iron to have any value, but their geological and 
topographic position leads to the belief that they may be found thicker and under a protective covering that 
will render them valuable. The samples exhibited in the agricultural department and labeled "Pulaski 
County" are from Pike County. Kaolin of this particular kind is nob known in this State outside of Pike 
County. Analysis of Pike County kaolin : 

Silica 48.87 per cent. 

Alumina 36.54 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 0.98 per cent. 

Lime 0.19 per cent. 

Magnesia o 25 per cent. 

Water 13-29 per cent. 



100.09 per cent. 
The Pulaski County kaolin is either modified bauxite or decayed granite. The localities of the bauxites^ 
have already been given. Other kaolin deposits occur in several localities in the vicinity of Fourche 
Mountain and Saline County granites, in i north, 12 west, i south, 12 west, and 2 south, 14 west. There 
are several localities in section 9, i south, 12 west: The following is an analysis of a sample of kaolin from 
section 9, i south, 12 west: 

Silica 46.27 per cent. 

Alumina 38.57 per cent. 

Iron (ferric) oxide 1.36 per cent. 

Lime 0.34 per cent. 

Magnesia 0.25 per cent. 

Potash 0.23 per cent. 

Soda 0'37 per cent. 

Water i3-6i per cent. 



101.00 per cent. 

The Ouachita County kaolin deposits form regular beds interstratified with other tertiary rocks. One 
important bed has been examined in township 12 south, range 18 west, section 2, which has a. thickness of 
more than 12 feet, the entir<^thickness not having been seen. The outcrop of this bed is exposed at but few 
places, but it is probably several miles in length. 

The true nature of this material would hardly be suspected from its general appearance, or from an 
analysis of it as it comes from the ground, for it resembles a sandy clay. If the sand be washed out and the 
material analyzed it is found to have the same composition as some of the best kaolins. The following is an 
analysis of the Ouachita County kaolin after the greater part of the sand has been removed. An analysis of 
a washed sample of Pennsylvania kaolin from Brandywine Summit is given for comparison: 



OUACHITA COUNTY KAOLIN. 

Silica 48 62 

Iron Tferric) oxide 1-74 

Alumina 36.52 

Water 13.40 



PENNSYLVANIA KAOLIN. 

Silica 47-24 

Iron (ferric) oxide 1.94 

Alumina 37-27 

Water 13-62 



I have the honor to remain, your excellency's obedient servant, 

John C. Branner, State Geologist. 



General Info7'mation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



39 



WHETSTONES, OILSTONES AND SCYTHESTONES. 

The sources of supply of siliceous rock in the United States used for sharpening edged 
tools have been the same for some years. Arkansas, Indiana and New Hampshire furnish 
the bulk of the supply, and a small quantity is produced in Vermont. The Arkansas stone 
is found in the neighborhood of Hot Springs, and is supposed to have been formed by the 
action of hot water upon the quartz formations. It is found in two varieties, known as 
"Arkansas" and "Washita" stone, the grains in the former being smaller and more com- 
pact, of a uniform bluish-white color, and semi-transparent, while the Washita stone is more 
opaque and of a pure white color. In Indiana two varieties also occur, known commercially 
as "Hindostan" and "Orange" stone, the former being white m color and the latter of a 
buff or orange tint. The quarries are all located in Orange County. The quarries in New 
Hampshire are located in Grafton County, and the product consists of "rift sandstone" and 
"chocolate" whetstone. The Vermont quarries are located in Orleans County, and the 
product is used -exclusively for scythestones.- Some "Labrador" oilstones have in the past 
been produced at Manlius, Onondaga County, New York, but the factory is now used for 
the manufacture of oilstones from Arkansas and Washita stone. 

The product of the different kinds of sharpening stones in 1889 consisted of 456 tons of 
scythestone, 1,500 tons of rift sandstone, 30,000 pounds of orange stone, 1,036,000 pounds 
of Washita. oilstone, 175,000 pounds of Arkansas oilstone, and 200,179 pounds of Hindostan 
oilstone. The production by States is shown in the following table, and for the sake of con- 
venience the quantity is expressed in short tons, the weight and value being given for rough 
stone : 

PRODUCTION OF SHARPENING STONES IN THE UNITED STATES FOR 1889 BY STATES. 



STATES. 



Total 

Arkansas 

Indiana 

New Hampshire 
Vermont 




Value. 



$ 32,980 

20,360 
7,670 

3.750 
1.200 



OPERATING EXPENSES IN PRODUCING WHETSTONES. 





STATES. 


Total 
Expenditures 

$ 23,804 


Wages. 


Total . ... 


$ 21,911 






Arkansas 


11,875 
7,148 
4,781 


1 1 ,060 


Indiana 


6,763 
4,088 


New Hampshire and Vermont _. . .. 





CAPITAL INVESTED. 



STATES. 


1 
Total. 


In land. 


In buildings, 

machinery, 

etc. 

$ 3.925 


In tools, 
implements, 
live stock, etc. 


In cash. 


Total 


$ 57,510 


% 42,500 


$ 6,885 


$ 4,200 


Arkansas 

Indiana 

New Hampshire and Vermont 


20,825 

9,225 

27,460 


18,000 

4,700 

1 9, 800 


625 

700 

2,600 


700 
1,825 
4,360 


1,500 

2,000 

700 



40 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

OILSTONE. 

BY J. J. SUTTON, HOT SPRINGS. 

Washita oilstone and Arkansas oilstone are both found in the same vicinity in the foot- 
hills of the Ozark Mountains in several counties in Arkansas, and the center of the location 
and best quality of both kinds is near the City of Hot Springs. The peculiar geological for- 
mation of this section is not known to exist elsewhere in the world. 

These mountains are from 500 to 1,000 feet high and mostly in long parallel narrow 
ranges with wide valleys between. The strata in this region are mostly vertical with some 
variations in the dip, and all of the rocks have been considerably broken in the folding or 
elevation of the mountains. The rocks in the valleys are usually shale and on the mountain 
summits are quartzite, a bluish gray in color, dense and vitreous, and hard sandstone, while 
near the base are leads of silica rocks from 200 to 400 feet wide with various grades of hard- 
ness, color, density and purity, from black and red flint to the softest snow white and porous 
rock which is used for whetstones. 

The whetstone grit is in narrow leads usually from four to fifteen feet wide running 
through a few only of these large silica formations, vertically with a variable inward dip, and 
it is found only in pockets in these leads where the location has been favorable to influences 
which have made it porous and uniform in its crystalization. There are known to be more 
than 500 miles of leads of hard and flinty silica rocks with numerous places where surface 
stones are gritty and some used locally, but the good whetstone grades of commercial value 
in solid ledges have been found only in two townships in Garland County, within ten miles 
of Hot Springs. 

There are two varieties of our oilstone rocks used for whetstones and they are 
commercially known as Washita oilstone and Arkansas oilstone. The \\'ashita is used by 
carpenters and all mechanics who use tools in wood work, and the Arkansas mostly by watch- 
makers, dentists and surgeons. The demand is greatest for the Washita and about twenty 
times as much of that is sold as of the Arkansas. They are alike in composition, both being- 
nearly pure silica, crystalized in small grains in a manner that has made many cavities, but 
the Washita is the most porous and has the sharpest grit. The crystals are hexagonal with 
sharp pointed ends and so small that they are invisible to the naked eye, but can be dis- 
tinctly seen in a microscope when magnified about one hundred times. They are harder 
than steel and that is the reason why Washita stones will quickly wear away and sharpen 
steel tools. These stones are called oilstones because oil must be used on them to fill the 
cavities and float away the steel particles that are cut from the tools. The Washita rock is 
about three times as hard as marble and it is cut in the same manner, with saws of band iron 
and wet sand. 

The sharpness of the grit in any Washita oilstone depends upon the purity of its silica 
combined with the character of its crystalization and number of cavities. The best grades 
of this rock give in a chemical analysis 99 to 99)^ per cent of silica and the microscope 
reveals in them only crystals with many cavities. There are only a few quarries as good, 
but nearly all, even in the best leads, contain some impurities or defects. Many Washita 
stones that appear good contain a small percentage of alumina which remain to clog the 
cavities when they wear away by use. Some contain hard spots and such will soon wear 
uneven, others contain many grains of sand among the crystals and they soon glaze when 
used, while many do not have enough cavities, but are too compact and almost solid like 
glass. There are leads of black Washita stone and black spots which contain carbon in 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 41 

several quarries which are good otherwise, but they are always too hard and are not quarried. 
The best Washita stones are white, but not all of the white stones are good, while some of a 
light rosy red color have sharp grit and are good when of even texture. 

Several doubtful theories were formerly advanced by geologists on the formation of our 
oilstone rocks and the reason for their having very sharp grit, but to Dr. Branner and his 
able assistant, Mr. Leon S. Griswold, we credit the recent discovery that the cavities estimated 
by them at more than 8,000,000 to the cubic inch in the best quality are rhombic in form, 
with sharp edge corners which greatly assist the crystal grains in cutting. They also 
advanced the theory that our silica rocks and others were originally deposited in an ocean 
bed ; that our mountains were elevated to their present vertical position by folding, and that 
the cavities were made by calcites or crystals of lime which were formed in the original rock 
and dissolved by a long continued leaching of water percolating through them. 

It is a fact well understood by many oilstone quarrymen that the good leads are not 
found in the valleys, nor on the mountain tops, but are always situated near the base of a 
mountain, and the quarries of the porous rocks are always located where the rainwater from 
the summit and side runs across them. Every good oilstone quarry has a long mountain 
slope back of it' and drainage through the strata below, and the depth of the good rock 
seems to depend upon the depth of the drainage. 

The foot wall to most of the leads is very hard and much fractured but in close seams 
so that most of the water runs over that or through it near the surface, while below several 
deep quarries is a strata of sand which is about fifteen inches thick, and one of blue clay two 
inches thick very rich in aluminum. Hundreds of Washita quarries have been opened, but 
most of them were not good more than ten feet deep, and less than a dozen were good down 
to twenty-five feet, while not half of that number have proved good below fifty feet. 

Applying Dr. Branner' s theory, I understand that the original rock was formed in level 
strata on a deep sea bed and when elevated into mountains by folding, the strata were 
changed to a vertical position and much broken ; that it contained many calcites and some 
aluminum and it was then crystalized but compact ; that it was metamorphosed while in its 
present position in many places, by the removal of the calcites and aluminum which has 
made it porous and pure silica as we find it ; that rainwater was an active agent in dissolving 
and removing them by a slow filtration ; that in deep quarries the aluminum was deposited 
in the cleavage seams and clay strata while the calcites were dissolved and the lime passed 
away in solution through the sand strata; that where there is no flow of surface water the 
calcites remain as in the original rock ; and where there is a flow of water and no sand 
strata, but a close foot wall below the leads, the rock near the surface may be porous and 
have grit, but in a few feet of depth it is hard and vitreous with no grit. 

In all tests by analysis, weighings of wet and dry samples and actual use of whetstones, 
the rock from the deepest quarries situated above a sand and clay strata are the purest in 
silica, the most porous and uniform in crystalization and the sharpest grit, and though many 
quarries have been worked out and abandoned, there is fortunately plenty of the best grade 
of this rock for the demands of trade many years to come. 

The reputation of Washita stone has been damaged some in recent years by the sale of 
poor grades on the markets, but most carpenters know that a good Washita oilstone is the 
best whetstone in the world. They are sold in all civilized countries and the rock is all 
quarried in Arkansas. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 43 

BLUESTONE. 

Johnson County abounds in this species of sandstone aijd the quarries at Cabin Creek 
furnish large quantities of stone which are shipped to Little Rock principally, where they are 
used for flagging, rubble masonry, retaining walls r.nd bridge stunes, sidewalks, crosswalks, 
-curbing, gutters, stepstones, flooring, vault covers, bases of tombstones, porch and hitching 
posts, well covers and house trimmings. Bluestone is also icund in Pulaski County and in 
other parts of the State. It is now a valuable industry and the demand for this stone 
increases each year. Some of the most handsome foundations in Little Rock are mad.e with 
this stone. 

SANDSTONE. 

The whole western side of Arkansas is underlaid with metamorphosed sandstone and 
quarries have been opened in Washington, Carroll, Crawford, Sebastian, Johnson, Pulaski 
and Independence Counties for commercial purposes. It is used for all purposes for which 
bluestone is used. It has many colors and is growing in popularity. The Batesville variety 
has a great reputation. Arkansas stood twenty-fourth in rank for actual production in 1890, 
having produced -an output valued at ^25,074. When it is known that in 1880 this interest 
had not been developed its importance will be appreciated. Eight quarries are in successful 
operation. 

Of the 210,000 cubic feet quarried in 1889, 139,000 feet were used for building pur- 
poses; 27,160 feet for street work, and 42,900 feet for bridge, railroad and miscellaneous 
purposes. Arkansas ranked twenty-seventh in the value of her sandstone for building pur- 
poses ; ninth for street purposes, and fourth for miscellaneous purposes. She ranked twenty- 
fifth as to cubic feet used for building purposes, eleventh for street purposes and sixth for 
miscellaneous purposes. The average yearly earning of laborers is greater in Arkansas than 
in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, Tennessee, 
Texas, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and several other States. 

The following additional items will show particulars not pointed out before which are 
t)f great value to the estimate placed upon this industry. 

Total number of cubic feet quarried.... 210,010. 

Total value of product $25,074. 

Total wages 11,287. 

Total expense 12,860. 

Total capital „ 17,660. 

Per cent profit on capital 69.16. 

Per cent profit on value of product 48.71. 

Cost per cubic foot of production 06. 

Percentage of wages to total expense 87-77- 

Wages paid per cubic foot .05. 

Percentage of wages to total value 45'Oi. 

Value per cubic foot 12. 

MANGANESE. 

The census of 1890 contains this language: " By far the larger proportion of man- 
ganese in the United States is mined in three localities — Cremora, Virginia ; Cartersville, 
Georgia; and Batesville (Independence County), Arkansas." Of the 23,927 tons of man- 
ganese produced in the census year, 20,325 tons were from these three districts. The fol- 
lowing is the exact production : 



44 



General Infovmation and Resources of the State of Ai'kansas. 



PRODUCTION OF MANGANESE ORES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1889. 



STATES. 


Produc- 
tion. 


Total 
Value. 


Value 
Per Ton. 


Employes. 


Wages. 


Capital. 


Total 


23,926 


$238,939 


$9.99 


432 


$123,858 


$2,094,475 




Arkansas 

California 


2,528 

53 
5,208 

15 

17 

124 

30 

1,336 

14,616 


23,173 
901 

50.143 

83 
170 

744 
120 

7,348 

156,257 


9.17 

17.00 

963 

5-53 
10.00 

6.00 

4.00 

5-50 
10,69 


96 
10 
117 
2 
2 
6 
3 

25 
171 


33,191 

1,149 

19,486 

53 

60 

400 

70 

3,510 

65,939 


1 20,000 
2,400 

175,125 

600 

250 

5,000 

100 


Georgia 

Nevada 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Vermont 


Virginia 


711,000 





Arkansas ranks third in the production of this important inineral, and is rapidly increas- 
in|f its production. The mining is continuous throughout the year. Besides the Batesville 
district the region around Little Rock in Pulaski and Saline Counties, and further to the 
southwest in Polk County abounds in manganese. No systematic mining efforts have been 
begun, and the value and quantity of the ore in this region is still unknown. The following 
table will show the growth of this industry since its beginning in Arkansas : 

PRODUCTION OF MANGANESE ORES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



STATES. 



Total... 

Virginia 

Arkansas 

Georgia 

Other States 



1880 


I88I 


5.761 


4,895 


3,661 


3,295 

100 

1,200 
300 


1,800 
300 



1882 


1883 


1884 


1885 


1886 


1887 


1888 


4,532 


6.155 


10,180 


23,258 


30,193 


34.524 


29,198 


2,982 
175 

1,000 


5.355 
400 


8,980 
800 


18.745 

1,483 

2,580 

450 


20,567 

3.316 

6,041 

269 


19,835 
5,651 
9,024 

14 


17.646 
4,312 
5,568 
1,672 


375 


400 


400 



1889 
23.927 

14,616 

2,528 

5,208 
1.575 



IRON DEPOSITS OF ARKANSAS. 

BY R. A. F. PENROSE, JR., ASSISTANT GEOLOGIST ARKANSAS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

The history of iron mining and manufacture in Arkansas is told in a few words. At the 
present time (1892) no iron ore is being mined and no iron is being manufactured in the 
State. Two small bloomaries were operated in the northern part of the State for short peri- 
ods before i860, and the limited products of those works represent all the iron ever manu- 
factured in Arkansas. Besides the small quantities of ore taken from local deposits to supply 
these bloomaries, no iron ore has been mined in the State except in prospecting. Prospect- 
ing, however, has been done in many places, and the numerous small openings wherever 
iron ore has been discovered attest to the endeavors that have been made to find it in 
quantities. 

The two bloomaries already referred to were known as the Bevens Bloomary and the 
Beach Iron Works, and were situated respectively in the northeastern and northwestern 
parts of the State. They were both operated for only short periods of a few years at the 
most, and both had already been abandoned in i860. They were built to supply a purely 
local demand, and the conditions that permitted their existence were the lack of transporta- 
tion facilities, there being at that time no railways in the northern part of the State, and the 
consequent difficulty of obtaining iron from outside sources. They attained their purpose 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 45 

in this respect, and supplied a serviceable iron for agricultural implements, wagon tires, and 
other such articles. The abandonment of the bloomaries in both cases is said to have been 
•caused by the limited market for the iron, as there were only sparsely settled country dis- 
tricts to supply. To this cause also may probably be added the inexperience of the opera- 
tors of the bloomaries. 

Though the only two iron-producing works ever erected in Arkansas were thus brought 
to an early end, yet the improved transportation facilities a few years later and the resulting 
influx of cheap iron and cheap farming implements would probably have caused their aban- 
donment even if they had previously been profitably operated. Whatever success they may 
have attained depended upon their protection against outside iron, and this protection was 
due to the comparative inaccessibility of the region at that time ; but when the protection 
was removed by the introduction of transportation facilities, their small capacity, crude 
methods, and, in the case of the Beach Iron Works, the scarcity and poor quality of the ore, 
would inevitably have caused their abandonment. 

The Bevens Bloomarj^ was situated on Big Creek in the southeastern part of Sharp 
County, six miles southwest of Smithville, in i6 N., 4 W. , the east half of section 24. It 
was built in 1857 by Alfred Bevens & Co., and was run for two or three years, when opera- 
tions were stopped on account of the limited market for the iron produced. At the present 
time most of the bloomary has been swept away or covered with sand by the overflows of 
Big Creek. The ores for the bloomary were obtained from the local deposits in the neigh- 
borhood, in Sharp and Lawrence Counties. 

Dr. D. D. Owen, in referring to the Bevens Bloomary after his visit there in 1857-58, 
says "it has two fires, and is driven by a good water power. When visited, this forge was 
undergoing thor6ugh repairs, and preparations were being made to introduce the hot blast 
in place of the cold blast, formerly in use, by which alteration it was expected to increase 
the amount of swaged bar iron manufactured from 500 to 1,600 pounds per day." Prof. 
J. P. Lesley, however, in speaking of the Bevens Bloomary somewhat later (1859), says "it 
was built in 1857 with two fires and one hammer driven by water, and makes 250 pounds of 
swedged iron per day with cold blast, out of brown hematitfe ore." 

The Beach Iron Works consisted of a bloomary and were situated in the central part of 
Carroll County, on the east side of Osage Creek, less than a mile above its confluence with 
King's River. It is said to have been erected in 1850 or soon thereafter, and to have been 
abandoned before i860, in which year it was destroyed by a freshet. Full records concern- 
ing it are at present unobtainable. It was built by an Englishman named Abram Beach, 
and it is said by some to have been worked for several years ; by others, for only a few 
months. At any rate, it was run on only a small scale and for a short time. Like the 
Bevens Bloomary, it was built to supply a local demand, and, as in case of the latter, the 
cause that permitted its existence and operation was the difficulty of obtaining iron from 
outside sources. The ore for the Beach Bloomary was obtained from the local deposits of 
Carroll County, in the vicinity of Berryville. 

DISTRIBUTION OF IRON ORE IN ARKANSAS. 

Iron ore is of common occurrence throughout many parts of Arkansas, but in only a 
few places is it found in important quantities. The largest and most accessible deposits yet 
discovered are in the northeastern part of the State, especially in Lawrence and Sharp, and 
to a lesser extent in Fulton and Randolph Counties. Other deposits, however, of varying 
size and importance occur in many places in the part of the State west and north of the line 
of the St. Louis and Southwestern Railway ("Cotton Belt Route"). 



46 



General Inforination and Resources of tJic State of Arkansas. 



IRON ORE LOCALITIES IN ARKANSAS. 



p 

5 



LOCALITY . 



3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
lo 



II 

12 

13 



14 



15 
i6 

17 



i8 
19 



22 
23 



24 
25 
26 



27 



29 



30 
31 
32 



NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS. 

Lawrence County. 

Coffman tract, 17 N., i W., Sec. 17, S. V2 S. E 

Holloway tract, No. i, 16 N., 2 W., Sec 6, S. E 

" No. 2. i7N.,3 W.,Sec. 35, N. E., S. E. 
Cazort tract, 16 N., 2 W., Sec. 6, N. W., S. W. .. 
Holloway & Collins tract, No. i, 16 N., 3 W., Sec. 12, S.E. 
" No.2,i6N.,3W.,Sec. 12, \V.V2, W.V2 

Wasson tract, No. i, 17 N., 3 W., Sec. 26, S. V2 

Sloan tract, 17 N., 3 W., Sec. 28, W. 1/2, N. E 

Strawberry or Cathaytown, 16 N., 3 W., Sec. 12, S. E... 

Sharp County. 

Collins tract, 16 N., 4W., Sec. 8, S. W .• 

Wasson tract, No. 2, 16 N., 4 W.. Sec. 13, E. '%,, S. E ... 
Big Creek & Reed's Creek dividefi6 N. , 4 W., Sec. 36, N. V2 

Fulton County. 
Deadrick tract, 20 N., 6 W., Sec. i 

Randolph Countv. 

Near Ravenden Springs '. 

Odom tract, 18 N., i W., Sec. 18, N. E., N. E 

Iron Bank, 21 N., 3 W., Sec. 8 , N. E., S. W. 

NORTHWESTERN ARKANSAS. 

Carroll County. 

Bobo tract, near Berryville 

Mack Thomas tract, near Berryville ... 

Brooks tract, near Berryville 

Washington County . 

Near Tolu, 14 N., 33 W., Sec. 16, N. W 

ARKANSAS VALLEY. 

Van Buren County. 

McGruder tract, near Choctaw 

Lick Mountain, near Choctaw 

Pope Countw 

Guest tract, near Russellville 

Bowden tract, 8 N., 19 W., Sec. 17, N. E., N. E 

Barton tract, 8 N., 19 W 

Logan County. 
Freeman's Gap, near Paris 

Sebastian County. 
Wild Cat Mountain, near Fort Smith . 

Scott County. 

' "Near Mansfield," 4 N.,3oW., Sec. 6 

Crawford County, 

Shay tract, near Lancaster 

Near Chester '. 

Basham tract, near Chester 



55-75 
53 91 
4'5-49 
41.71 

49-44 
47-99 
41.58 
40.10 
36.30 
27-35 



58.91 
54-7° 
23.67 



44 97 



50-49 
44.44 

49-97 



47-33 
45.01 
21.96 



13.62 



24.40 
20. g8 



24.40 
38.55 
17-56 



19.76 



17.81 



14.15 



17. o« 

15-37 
28.30 



5.20 

7 08 

8.47 

28.26 

25-85 
15.08 
16.26 
12.54 
30.87 
52.58 



2.46 

2.80 

58.12 



21.40 



12.60 

11.83 
14-53 



5-36 

6.82 

50.42 



60.80 



40.44 
13-78 



46.36 
18.42 
63.64 



36.32 



10.84 



51.50 



40.30 

42-54 
37.22 



o 

X. 
D. 

o 



0.041 
0.028 
0.007 
0.014 
0.028 
0.083 
0.093 

0.042 
0.041 
0.284 



0.083 

0.02I 
0.306 



0.031 



0.041 
0.021 
0.014 



0.028 
0.035 
0.299 



0.046 



0.276 
0.524 



0.242 
0.262 
0.312 



0.241 



0.414 



0.286 



0.274 
0.184 
0.252 






0.212 
0.198 

0.315 

0.232 

0.479 
0.054 
0.095 
0.637 
0.205 
0.034 



O.IO_) 

0.458 
0.178 



0.109 



0.102 

0.157 

0.082 



0.287 
0.301 
4.486 



0.178 

0.123 



0.164 
0.054 
0.178 



0-137 



0.41 1 



0.049 



0.200 

0.054 
0.123 






A little 



None 



Trace 

None 



A little 
Trace 



A little 
None 



•403 



A little 



Trace 

None 
Trace 



None 



A little 



None 



A little 



analyzed by 



A. E. Me 



like. 



R. N. Brackett. 



A. E. Menke. 



it <t 



t( (£ 



it f ( 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



47 



IRON ORE LOCALITIES IN ARKANSAS — Continued. 






"3 
34 
35 
36 
37 



38 



40 



41 
42 



43 
44 



45 
46 

47 
48 

49 

50 
51 



52 
53 
54 
55 
56 
57 



58 
59 



60 
61 



62 
63 
64 

65 
66 



67 
68 



69 
70 



LOCALITY. 



OUACHITA MOUNTAINS. 

Pulaski County. 

Capitol L. & M. Co. tract, i N., 14 W., Sec. 24, N. E .. 
" " " " " " " 'J S.E., N.W 

Whittemore& Bunch tract, iN.. 14W., Pec. 14, N.E.,S.W 
R. W. Worthen tract, i N., 13 W., Sec. 19, S.W., S.W 
" " " I N., 14 W.,Sec. 14, N.E.,S.W 

Saline County (Northern Part). 
Iron Mountain, 2 N., 16 W., Sec. 18, S. E 



Garland County. 
Rector & Roulston claim. No. i, 4S., ig W., Sec. 3, S.E 

Hot Spring County. 

Conley- Sullivan claim, 4 S., 20 W., Sec. 26, N.W., S. E. 
Magnet Cove, 3 S., 17 W., Sec. 20, S. W 



Montgomery County 

Bud Jones' claim, No. i, 3 S., 23 W., Sec. 22, S.E., N.E 
" " No. 3,3 S., 23 W., Sec. 29, N. 1/2... 



Polk County. 

J. Guy Lewis' claim, 4 S., 28 W 

Pointed Rock Tunnel, 4 S., 28 \V., Sec. 19.. 
Arkansas Development Co. claims 



SOUTHERN ARKANSAS. 
Saline County (Southern Part). 
R. W. Worthen tract, 3 S., 13 W., Sec. 6 .... 



Young tract, 2 S., 14 W., Sec. 33, N. E 

Frank Davis tract, 2 S., 14 W., Sec. i 

Claiborne tract, 2 S., 14 W., Sec. 10 

Wm. Herr tract, 2 S., 14 W., Sec. 3, E. 1/2, S.W , 

Dallas County. 
Griswold's Mill, 10 S., 16 W., Sec. 4 



Ouachita County. 

Five Miles West of Camden, 12 S., 18 W. 
Wm. Brown tract, 12 S., 18 W .. 



Nevada County. 
Vicinity of Rosston, 13 S., 21 W 



(< (( (( (t (< 



Hempstead County. 
Eigh't Miles North of New Lewisville.. 



a (c (( 



Lafayette County. 
Boyd Farm, near New Lewi.sville 



(( ' (C (( ( it 



33.80 
11.82 

27.07 

6.10 

53-42 



35-74 
11-34 



57-54 



14-15 
68.58 



61.99 

54-54 



t6.22 

14-51 

25-53 
35-39 
16.83 
22.26 

50.38 



40.94 
22.57 
21.10 
20 98 

14-34 
21.96 



30.67 
37-73 



26, 15 
35-68 



57-17 
50.20 
38.80 
30.88 
22.08 



26.47 
27-31 



38.13 
19.68 



44.91 
63.19 

46.37 
75.02 
22.48 



42.79 
50.60 



2.96 



1.29 

5-86 



1-53 
0.84 



19.32 
41.40 
0.80 
1.88 
29.00 
44.40 



30.26 
2.96 

23.86 
2.12 
3-46 
6.68 



40.48 
25.87 



52.16 
35-95 



4.27 

10.65 
26.57 
50.63 
58-73 



52.10 
53-32 



26.78 
65.82 



o 

.c 
a 

O 



0.160 
0.270 
0.470 
0.184 
0.500 



0.140 
0.276 



0.670 



0.560 
0.028 



0.200 
1.790 



0-773 
0.191 
o 767 
0.230 
0.343 
0.576 
1.450 



0.070 
0.193 
0.1 10 
0.262 
o 124 

0-317 



0.704 

0.225 



0.588 

0.280 



0.225 

0.424 

0.II9 
0.223 
0.085 



0.20X 
0.136 



0.139 
0.137 



3 



I-I37 



0.082 



O.191 



0.137 
0.082 



0.548 
0.178 
0.452 
0.274 
0.041 



a 
a 



0-39 

8.08 

1.62 

None 

Trace 



A little 
None 



None 



4'-54 
A little 



0.04 
0.30 



Trace 
A little 
40.51 
27.68 
26.20 
11.93 
2.06 



Trace 

A little 

tt 

Trace 
A little 



None 
Trace 



None 

Trace 
None 



analyzed by 



R. N. Brackett. 



A. E. Menke. 
R. N. Brackett. 



A. E. Menke. 

W. A. Noyes. 

it (( 

A. E. Menke. 

W. A. Noyes. 

(I a 

A. E. Menke. 

(( (( 

St. L. S.&T.Wks. 



R. N. Brackett. 
A. E. Menk-e. 



R. N. Brackett. 



The analyses in this table were made by the Chemists of the Survey, with the exception of Nos. 47-51 inclusive, which were made 
at the St. Louis Sampling and Testing Works, Prof. W. B. Potter, Manager, and which have been kindly furnished the Survey by Mr. 
W. E. Barnes, editor of the A^e of Steel, St. Louis, Mo. 



General InformatioJi and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 49 

AGRICULTURAL MARLS AND CHALKS OF ARKANSAS. 

The following extract from the Arkansas Geologic Survey shows the nature and extent 
of articles : 

No region of the world is more plentifully and conveniently endowed with such valuable natural marls 
and chalks than Arkansas, nor is there any region which could be so greatly benefited by their use. We 
have here large areas of soil especially deficient in the very ingredients which are so plentifully stored up in 
our marls. Many farmers endeavor to cultivate soils which are pure commercial marls, in which there is 
entirely too much lime, as in some of the black land regions, while others cultivate land utterly deficient in 
lime, potash, etc., which might readily be supplied by using the natural marls. Large tracts like the prairies 
east of the Iron Mountain Railway, now lying idle, might be made the most fertile and profitable lands of the 
State. 

The marls used most frequently throughout the world are of five general types, only one of which usually 
occurs in any single geographic area. These may be classified as follows : 

1. Phosphatic Marls. — Those rich in phosphates, of rare occurrence and of great commercial value. 
Example, the tertiary marl beds of South Carolina. 

2. Greensand, or Glauconitic Marls. — Those composed mostly of the mineral glauconite (a silicate of 
iron and potash) and sand. These are often comparatively poor in lime. Example, the marls of New Jersey. 

3. Lime., or Calcinm Carbonate Marls. — These marls are rich in lime as an essential, mixed with clay, 
greensand, or other accessory minerals. They form from 20 to 75 per cent of the material. Example, lime 
marls of England. 

4. Chalk Marls- zre lime marls in which the calcium carbonate is so much in excess as to compose 
nearly the entire mass, usually over 85 per cent of the whole. Example, the chalks of England and France. 

5. Gypsum, or Sulphate of Liftie Alarls are those in which the fertilizing element is the sulphate of 
lime. This fertilizer is usually spoken of as land plaster. 

All these kinds of marls seldom, if ever, occur in the same formation or in close proximity to each other, 
but usually each occurs alone in widely separated regions. Thus it happens that the marls of South Carolina 
are of the highly phosphatic character; those of New Jersey mostly greensands or glauconitic; those of 
England and France, mostly lime and chalk, while gypsum occurs at other places. In view of these facts it 
is very remarkable that in Arkansas, within a small triangular area of thirty miles square between Washington 
and Murfreesboro and the White Cliffs of Little River we have abundant supplies of at least four of these 
valuable kinds of marl, greensand, lime, chalk and gypsum, with the reasonable expectation that another 
year's investigation would reveal the phosphates. These facts alone, if properly utilized, will be of greater 
value to the State than all the gold dug within the bounds of California has been to that State. 

The marls of Arkansas may be classified according to their local distribution as follows: 

I. THE TERTIARY MARLS OF EASTERN ARKANSAS. 

1. It has not been in the province of the writer's investigation to study the tertiary marls of Crowley's 
Ridge, and they are only mentioned here for purposes of comparison. As the value of marls is greatly 
dependent upon their convenience to the consumer, it is not necessarily derogatory to the local value of the 
tertiary marls of St. Francis and other counties to say that although valuable they are inferior to the cretaceous 
marls of the southwestern part of the State, possessing in general more sand and much less lime than the latter. 

II. THE CRETACEOUS MARLS OF SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS. 

2. The upper cretaceous or greensand marls found in the geologic horizon of the Washington or High 
Bluff sands, in Clark and Hempstead Counties, and in the beds of Little River, at Morris' Ferry, in Little 
River County. 

3. The middle upper cretaceous, or lime marls of the Big Deciper, Gryphcea vesiculai-is and Exogyra 
po7iderosa horizons, varying in quantities of calcium carbonate and sand from lo per cent of the former and 
50 per cent of the latter as the geologic column is descended, to 75 per cent of the former to 10 per cent of 
the latter; and also varying in quantities of accessory clay and greensand. These marls occur in Clark and 
Hempstead Counties at the horizons mentioned. 

4. The basal upper cretaceous or chalk marls of the White cliffs of Little River, containing more than 
90 per cent of calcium carbonate and the Rocky Comfort chalk, containing more than 85 per cent of lime. 

5. The Comanche series, G7-yphoea pitcheri marls at and south of Cerro Gordo, containing a little gyp- 
sum and much clay. 

6. The Trinity gypsum marls of Plaster Bluff and other points between Murfreesboro and Ultimathule, 
containing from 10 to 95 per cent of gypsum or sulphate of lime. 

The greensand marl at Washington is especially convenient to railway transportation. If reasonable 
freight rates could be arranged, they should be freely used both on the plateau gravel or red lands, and on 
the Prairie d'Ane and Prairie de Roan clays and on the prairies of the eastern part of the State. 



50 



General Information and Resottrces of the State of Arkansas. 



COAL. 

Total product in 1891, 542,379 short tons; spot value, $647,560. . 

Compared with the product of 1890, the output in 1891 shows a gain of 142,491 tons 
and an increase of value of $132,965, the product in the former year being 399,888 short 
tons, worth $514,595. The increased product is due to the opening of new mines by the 
Kansas and Texas Coal Company, and more extensive operations by the Western Coal and 
Mining Company, the mines of both of which are located in Sebastian County. The output 
of the other two producing counties was not materially changed. The total number of men 
employed in 1891 was 1,317, who worked an average of 214 days, against 938 men for the 
same number of days in 1890. The increased production, however, was attended by a de- 
cline in the average price per ton, from $1.29 in 1890 to $1.19 in 189 1. 



COUNTIES. 



Johnson 

Pope 

Sebastian 

Small mines. 

Total 



COAL PRODUCT OF ARKANSAS IN 1891, BY COUNTIES. 



I Sold to 
Loaded at local trade 
mines for and used 
shipment. , by em- 
ployes. 



Used 

at mines 

for steam 

and heat. 



Total 

amount 

produced, 



Short tons Short tons Short tonsShort Ions 



78,223 
4,850 I 
435>047 i 



1,100 

1.759 
6,000 



518,120 8,900 



677 
100 

14.573 



15.350 



80,000 
5,000 

451.379 
6,000 



Total 
value. 



$112,000 
15,000 
508,560 
12,000 



542,379 i$647,56o 



Average 

price per 

ton. 



$ 1.40 



1. 1 



.00 



Number 

of days 

active. 



$ 1. 19 



193 
100 
222 



214 



Average 

number 

employed. 



185 

40 

1,092 



1,317 



ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF COAL IN ARKANSAS FROM 1882 TO 1891. 



YEARS. 



1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 



Short tons. 



5,000 

50,000 

75,000 

100,000 

125,000 



YEARS. 



1887 

1 888 
1889 
1890 
1891 



Short tons. 



129,600 
276,871 

279,584 
399,888 

542,379 



JOHNSON COUNTY. 
The product in 1891 decreased 9,000 tons compared with 1890, the difference in value 
being $18,927. The mines gave employment to 185 men in 1891 against 215 men the pre- 
vious year. The coal is shipped from the collieries at Coal Hill over the Little Rock & 
Fort Smith Railroad. The annual product of this county since 1887 has been as follows: 



COAL PRODUCT OF JOHNSON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, SINCE 1887. 



YEARS. 



1887 
1888 
1889 



Short tons. 



71,900 
106,037 
105,998 



1890. 
1891. 



YEARS. 



Short tons. 



89,000 
80,000 



General Information and Resources oj the State of Arkansas. 



51 



POPE COUNTY. 

The output in 1891 was 5,000 tons, valued at $15,000, an increase of 1,000 tons over 
the product of 1890. The coal is classed as a semi-anthracite and is consumed chiefly in 
Little Rock and Fort Smith for domestic purposes, being shipped over the Little Rock & 
Fort Smith Railroad to those cities. 



COAL PRODUCT OF POPE COUNTY, ARKANSAS, SINCE 1887. 



YEARS. 



1887 
1888 
1889 



Short tons. 



8,200 

10,240 

6,014 



YEARS. 



1890. 

I89I. 



Short tons. 



4,000 
5,000 



SEBASTIAN COUNTY. 

Sebastian County in 1891 produced 83 per cent of the total output of the State, with 
45 1 5379 short tons valued at $508,560. The Kansas and Texas Coal Company, and the 
Western Coal and Mining Company, both of St. 'Louis, are the principal operators, the 
former shipping its product from Huntington over the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, 
and the latter from Jenny Lind over the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad. 
The output of the county in 1891 was 50 per cent greater than the preceding year, being 
4515379 short tons, against 300,888 short tons. The value did not increase as much in pro- 
portion, being 40 per cent more than in 1890, or $508,560, as against $363,668. The 
Sebastian County mines gave employment to 1,092 men for an average of 222 days. In 1890 
the number of men employed was 683 for 214 days. 



COAL PRODUCT OF SEBASTIAN COUNTY, ARKANSAS, SINCE 1887. 



YEARS. 



1887 
1888 
1889 



Short tons. 



39,500 
160,594 

165,884 



YEARS. 



1890 , 
189I 



Short tons. 



300,888 
4515379 







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General Informatioii and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



55 



BRICK CLAYS. 

The soils derived from the sandstones and shales of the State are well adapted to brick 
making. Rocks of these kinds are most abundant along the faces of the Boston Mountains 
and its outliers containing the sandstones and shales of the Millstone Grit. The brick clays 
will be found especially abundant and good on the plains that adjoin the bases of these hills 
and mountains. Here the soils derived by decay from the higher rocks have accumulated 
and have been turned over and tetnpered by natural processes, while the too fat clays have 
been removed by water. Of course there are many other places than these where the con- 
ditions for the formation of good brick earths have prevailed. In places. the lowlands along 
streams are covered with brick earths to a depth of from 2 to lo feet. 

The shales of Washington County, especially the Fayetteville shale and the Coal-bearing 
shale, are available for the manufacture of vitrified bricks and sewer pipes. The vitrified 
brick industry has assumed large proportions at Ft. Smith, Ark. The principal streets of that 
city, of Little Rock and of Pine Bluff have been paved with brick manufactured at Ft. Smith. 

BRICK STATISTICS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, FROM VOL. I OF THE GEO- 
LOGICAL SURVEY'S REPORT FOR 1889: 



Place 


"o "> 

rt 


Make 


Men 
Employed 


Average 

Monthly 

Wages 


U 


Output 
for 1889 


Value of Kiln 


ID 

a, 
P4 


Fayetteville 


2 
2 


Hand. 

f I hand. 
\ I machine. 


20 
}-5 


$ 650 
390 


$ 825.00 
3000.00 


450,000 
800,000 


f $8to$ioperM 
\ Repressed $15 

$6 


25,000 


Springdale 



Brick kilns of much greater dimensions than these are regularly operated at Ft. Smith, 
Little Rock and Malvern. Pressed brick are manufactured at Malvern. 



TIMBER. 

NOTES ON THE FOREST TREES OF THE CROWLEY'S RIDGE REGION. 

FROM BRANNER'S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

A few words in the way of general introduction may be allowed. In the first place there 
is a great similarity in the forests in the lowland region east and west of Crowley's Ridge. 
This similarity extends both to the species and their abundance. But the physical differ- 
ences are not great and little else is to be expected. However, there are some minor facts 
of interest in the distribution of certain species. Cottonwood, for instance, is far more 
common in the valley of the St. Francis than in that of the L'Anguille, Beech is more 
abundant along the northern third of the ridge country than farther to the south. The pine 
areas are very much restricted on the ridge, and are found only on those parts of it which 
are surmounted with sands and gravels ; in other words, only where the tertiary sands and 
gravels rise quite to the tops of the hills. It does not, as a rule, run far down the sides of 
the hills and is rarely found in the valleys. The cypress is abundant alike in the lowlands 
on both sides of the ridge, but it is seen at its best in the valley of the White River. The 
poplar does not appear to any extent at the tops of the hills, and where they are sandy it is 
never found ; but in the valleys it is both abundant and large. 



56 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

In the second place the forests are often very dense and the timber of a superior class. 
In many sections of this region the forests are still practically untouched and stand in all 
their original vigor. While certain modifications need to be understood for this statement 
concerning those localities which are along the railroads, it is quite true for the mass of the 
forest covered region, that is to say, for all Eastern Arkansas except the small areas of prairie 
lands in the valley of the White River. It is true, also, that the habits of stock which seek 
mast are slowly modifying the nature of the forests by changing the nature of the under- 
growths. Some they trample quite out of existence, other forms they seriously affect so that 
they are engaged in an uncertain struggle for existence. The oaks bearing bitter fruits are on 
the increase while those whose fruit is sweet are on the decline in respect to number of young 
trees growing in stock raising districts. The result is easy of interpretation. The newer forests 
will eventually be composed largely of the black oaks and similar forms with bitter masts. 

A third feature of great interest lies in the encroachment of the forest areas on the few 
remaining praries of Eastern Arkansas. Few large prairies now remain, and the largest of 
these is the region west of and near Devall's Bluff, that is, west of \Vhite River. About all 
these prairies are to be seen the advance guard of the forests, pushing their way into the 
treeless region in long straggling outliers of black jack, sassafras, willow, oak and blue ash. 
Mixed with them are a goodly number of sumach bushes of all sizes, and these all are re- 
claiming the lands to the forests. 

The railways are modifying the character of the herbaceous vegetation to a marked 
degree all along their course. Many northern and western plants, seen nowhere else in 
Eastern Arkansas, were noticed along the Iron Mountain Railway. Some of the more com- 
mon noxious weeds are being rapidly introduced. Many of the prairie regions, the source 
of most of the native hay of the eastern part of the State, are being claimed by these 
strangers. About Goodwin and through the Grand Prairie this encroachment of imported 
weeds is very marked. 

Such further notes as may be of general interest may be found in connection with the 
several species mentioned in the subjoined list: 

REGISTER. 

The Magnolia — (^Magnolia grandifl era .^ Linnaeus.) 

The Cucumber Tree — (^Magnolia acuminata., Linnaeus.) 

Magnolia — {Magnolia macrophylla, Michaux.) 

The Yellow Poplar or Tulip — (^Liriodendron tulipifera., Linnaeus.) 

The Paw-Paw — {Asimina triloba., Dunal.) 

The Linden or Bass Wood — (^Tilia Americana^ Linnaeus.) 

Wait-a-bit, Tear Blanket) — Xanthoxylum clava-herculis, Linnaeus.) 

The Holly — {Ilex opaca., Alton.) 

Holly — {Ilex Decidua^ Walter.) 

Wahoo — {Euonimus atropurpm-eus., Jacquin.) 

{Rhamnus Caroliniana, Walter.) 

Buckeye — Aesculus, sp. indt.) 

Red Leaved Maple — {Acer rubrutp., Linnaeus.) 

Sumach — {Rhus copallina., Linnaeus.) 

Black Locust — Robinia pseudacacia., Linnaeus.) 

Coffee Bean — {Gyf^nocladus canadensis., Lamarck.) 



Eaga 







■7i 

-a 



58 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

The Honey Locust. — {^Gleditschia triacanthos, Linnaeus.) 

Wild Plum — {^Prunus Americana, yi?iX=\\d\\.') 

The Cr.ab Apple — (^Pyrus coroniaria^ Linnaeus. ) 

The Witch Hazel — (^Hamafnelis vir^inica, Linnaeus.) 

Sweet Gum — {^Liquidambar styraciflua., Linnaeus.) 

Flowering Dog-wood — (^Cornus florida, Linnaeus.) 

Black Gum — (^Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall ) 

Tupelo Gum — (i^^.f^^^ z/?///?<?r«, Wangenheim.) 

The Persimmon — (^Diospyros virginiatia, Linnaeus.) 

The Blue Ash — {Fraxinus quadrangulata, Michaux. ) 

The White Ash — (^Fraxinus Americana., Linnaeus.) 

The Green Ash — (^Fraximis viridis, Michaux.) 

Catalpa — (^Catalpa speciosa.i\\a.r6.er.') 

Sassafras — (^Sassafras officinale., Nees.) 

Winged Elm — (^Ulmus alata^ Michaux.) 

The White Elm — (^Ulmus Americana., Linnaeus.) 

{*Planera aquatica., Gemelin.) 

The Red Mulberry — {^Alorus rubra ^ Linnaeus.) 

The Sycamore — (^Platanus occidentalism Linnaeus.) 

Hickory — (^Hicoria aquatica., (Michx. f. ) Britt.) 

The Pecan — {^Hickoria pecan., (Marsh,) Britt.) 

Butternut or White Walnut — (^Juglans cinerea, Linnaeus.) 

The Black Walnut — (^Juglatis nigra., Linnaeus.) 

The Black Birch — {^Betu la nigra., Linnaeus.) 

White Oak — i^Quercus alba^ Linn.) 

The white oak is a beautiful tree and one which is most abundant all over Eastern 
Arkansas, and on Crowley's Ridge where the underlying geologic formations are pleistocene. 
It is very abundantly distributed along the slopes of the ridge even in those portions where 
the soils are too siliceous for its great development. Immense quantities of this grand tree 
have here been cut down and destroyed. In many places the forests have been thrice cut 
over and the better classes of timber are now all gone. There are yet, however, vast quan- 
tities of the largest and finest timber remote from the railways, and east of the southern half 
of the ridge. The use most common for this timber in this area is for the manufacture of 
barrel staves and heads, there being many mills along the foot of the ridge engaged in this 
industry. At some places, as at Poplar Bluff in Missouri, at Paragould, Harrisburg, and at 
numerous smaller places where there are mills, the annual output is very great. Car load 
after car load of staves, in the rough or partially finished, or "knocked down" after fitting, 
are to be seen in transit daily in all parts of the region. There is a most wanton destruction 
of valuable timber in this industry, which does not use all the tree, only a small portion of it 
being available. The remainder is left to rot, or is made into great piles and burned. No 
use is made of the ashes, which might be gathered and leached with profit. The bark, too, 
is a complete loss, notwithstanding that it is rich in tannin and might be utilized in the man- 
ufacture of leather, after having first been treated on the ground to extract this valuable 
product. Not only does the cupidity of men incite them to the felling of the largest and 
most perfect trees, but, in common with all suitable oaks of other species, many hundreds of 



General Information and Resources of tlic State of Arkansas. 59 

thousands are annually cut into railway ties and shipped out of the State to regions less 
favored. The number of ties made and sold in Arkansas would seem incredible to one not 
familiar with the actual state of the industry. The product goes far to the west to the States 
with treeless plains, as Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, to say nothing of the thousands utilized 
nearer home and at home in railway construction. The prices received by no means repre- 
sent the actual value of this tree which is rapidly becoming a matter of history in this part 
of the State. 

The barrel timber is used largely for wine and whisky casks, these liquids requiring a 
fine and close grained wood to retain the product. Many thousands of these barrels, in un- 
finished condition, or rather in "knock down" condition are sent to Europe where they are 
used for similar purposes. Petroleum, which likewise requires barrels of fine texture, is also 
shipped largely in casks made from this wood. Perhaps it is safe to say that the wood of 
the white oak is put to more common uses than that of any other forest tree in the United 
States. There is scarcely a branch of wood working industry which does not use it one way 
or another. 

The Water Oak — (^Querciis aquatica., Walter.) 

The water oak is found associated with the willow oak ( Quercus phellos) in consider- 
able numbers in all Eastern Arkansas. It is very common in the slash regions of the 
Cache and L'Anguille, and does best on poor and wet soils. It does not attain a very great 
size, at least it did not seem to us to ever grow very large. It is used for posts and seems 
to be well adapted to that purpose. 

The Overcup Oak — {Quercus lyrata., Walter.) 

This is one of the most abundant and largest oaks of the St. Francis Bottoms, and is 
likewise one of the white oaks. It is commonly called the overcup oak, from the peculiar 
characters of the cupules which hold the fruit. The acorn is nearly entirely covered. The 
wood is cut and marketed with white oak and is not often discriminated from it. Like the 
white oak it is largely employed in the manufacture of such barrels as need to be made 
from a close textured wood. 

The Mossy Cup Oak — {Quercus macrocarpa^ Michaux.) 

As implied in the name the acorns of this tree are very large and are further distin- 
guished by a heavy and long fringe. To this tree therefore the common name of mossy cup 
oak has been popularly applied. It is very abundant and is of especial value for fencing 
purposes in this portion of Arkansas. This species resists the action of wet soils, or of water 
in soils, better than any other American oak. It is therefore correspondingly valuable. It 
is very common and grows very large. 

The Cow Oak — {Quercus 7nichauxii^ Nuttall.) 

This species, called cow oak by the people, is a common form, growing to be a rival of 
the white oak in the bottoms of the St. Francis, where it attains its best development. It is 
a source of abundant mast for stock and is much sought by it. The acorns are large and 
sweet. While a close grained wood and largely used in barrel manufacture, it does not 
hold liquors as well as either the white oak or the overcup oak, at least such is its reputation 
about the mills. Many, perhaps most of the barrels used for pork packing are made from 
the wood of the cow oak, a purpose for which it is admirably adapted. 



Els 







GQQB 






General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 61 

The Pin Oak — (^Quercus palustris., DuRoi.) 

Possibly the pin oak is the most abundant oak of the slash country. From Wynne 
north along the base of Crowley's Ridge one is never out of its range. It is used chiefly for 
firewood and for railway ties, thousands of the middle sized trees being exported in the 
latter form. 

Of other oaks not less than six or eight additional species might be distinguished. To 

the professional botanists, interested in questions of geographic distribution, abundance, 

crosses, variations, species, influence of habitat, and similar matters, this region offers a 

most inviting field. The prevailing features of the forests are contributed by the oaks and 

one is never, except in the heart of a cypress swamp, out of sight of a half dozen forms at 

one time. 

The Willow Oak — (^Quercus phellos, Linn.) 

The willow oak is readily distinguished by the character of the foliage, the leaves 
closely resembling those of the willow. It is a very abundant tree in Arkansas, attaining its 
greatest development in the low and wet lands west of Crowley's Ridge. It is usually re- 
garded as indicative of poor land. 

The Beech — (^Fagus ferruginea., Aiton.) 

The beech is of erratic distribution along Crowley's Ridge, but does not appear to 
occur in any quantity in the lowlands to the west. It occurs abundantly from Helena to 
the Missouri line on both sides of the ridge, but most commonly along the slopes of its west 
face. On the top of the ridge none was noticed north of Jonesboro, though it is quite com- 
mon south on the highest ridges. Scattering trees occur for the most part in and south of 
St. Francis County, while west and north of Gainesville and Jonesboro, in the Cache second 
bottoms, the species is most abundant and large. Many of the largest examples noted in 
the south of the ridge were either hollow or dry at the heart, which fact gives the trees cer- 
tain peculiar features. It does not seem to be as common in the St. Francis bottoms or 
along the east side of the ridge as on the west, but no comparative notes were made on this 
subject. Except for firewood the tree appears to have no use in this part of the country. 

The Pines. 

There remain but two trees especially worthy of mention among the timber resources of 
this area, and they are both members of the great family Coniferse, or cone bearing trees. 
The physical conditions under which each thrives are of the most diverse kind. 

The Cypress — (^Taxodium distichufn^i Richard.) 

The cypress is familiar to all who dwell in the eastern or southern portions of Arkansas. 
As is so well known the tree thrives in swamps and other wet and low lands; it often, as in 
the valley of the L'Anguille, stands in the very middle of the sluggish streams. 

From its great utility the cypress is much sought after by the lumbermen. Its uses are 
very diverse, but it is especially adapted to the manufacture of shingles, into which article 
of commerce many thousands of feet are annually converted. There are several mills along 
Crowley's Ridge at Madison, Paragould and St. Francis, where shingles are made in great 
quantities. The powers of resistance which this wood offers to the action of wet and damp 
stations, as in fence building, telegraph poles, electric light poles and similar uses has caused 
it to be in great demand. Many hundreds of the smaller sized trees are employed for poles. 



I 



62 General Informatioji and Resources\f the State of Arkansas. 

The best trees that are accessible are now somewhat within the borders of the cypress 
swamps, the more easily reached having, as a rule, already been marketed. The nature of 
the places best suited to the growth of the cypress renders difificult its cutting so that its 
price is slowly but steadily advancing. "The most valuable timber has now, however, disap- 
peared from the immediate neighborhood of the low river banks easily accessible at seasons 
of high water during every winter and spring. Only groves standing remote from the banks 
of the water courses, and which are only accessible to the raftsman during exceptionally 
high stages of water, now supply this lumber. The shallow lagoons, covered with water 
except during seasons of prolonged drouth, and called cypress creeks, present in the spring 
of the year a strange sight. No object meets the eye between the immense trunks of the 
mighty trees, as in these cypress groves no other tree nor shrub can live in the dark shaded, 
water covered soil. These reservoirs of drainage, generally without an outlet, are called 
cypress lakes if the water in any part of them, too deep to allow the growth of trees, confines 
the cypress to their more shallow borders. Here the cypress arrives at its greatest dimen- 
sions and produces timber of the finest quality." This statement, originally applied to the 
cypress swamps of the Yazoo region in Mississippi, is true to a very great extent of the 
cypress regions of the St. Francis and White Rivers. Perhaps the great body of cypress in 
Northeastern Arkansas is still standing the valley of the White River, but even here the most 
accessible have been removed. From the top of Crowley's Ridge, looking either to the 
east or the west, at those points which command the valleys of the St. Francis and the Cache, 
the cypress areas can be readily made out by the observer. The tops of the giant trees 
tower far above the heads of the intervening forests and give one the location of the swamps 
for hundreds of square miles. It is evident to a person thus situated that immense quanti- 
ties of this tree still exist in Arkansas, and that this region will yet supply vast quantities of 
valuable cypress timber. Into the depths of the greater swamps the lumberman has not yet 
penetrated. 

The Short Leaved Pine — (^Pinus mitts, Michaux.) 

This is the short leaved pine of authors and is practically the only species growing 
within the State north of the Arkansas River. Its distribution has not been carefully studied 
in the areas outside of Crowley's Ridge on which its occurrence was carefully noted. Its 
distribution is somewhat erratic, but after all, is readily seen to conform to certain physical 
conditions imposed by the character of the soils. It rarely descends to the base of the ridge 
and only then in straggling representatives. The lowest trees noticed, small ones at that, 
were about two miles north of Wittsburg in Cross County, where a few saplings were found 
near the road not far from Copperas Creek. The highest points in the ridge in Cross County 
where the soil is siliceous or sandy have a growth of pine, none of which is very large. 
The presence of numerous large pine stumps, however, tells the story of this tree in language 
that cannot be misunderstood. Near Harrisburg, Vanndale, and Jonesboro are to be found, 
on the tops of the highest hills, stretching away in long straggling lines, what now remains 
of the pine forests of this portion of the ridge. But in Greene and Clay Counties, and on 
some of the more elevated hills of Craighead County, there is still standing many fair sized 
pine trees. The largest and best have, however, been cut off, the region having been twice 
cut over. Farther from the railways there is still considerable pine standing, much of it 
large and fine. A typical locality is about Hardy's mill not far from Gainesville. Here, on 
the high hills that are composed of the tertiary sands and gravels, there are still many large 
pines. But their entire removal is the question only of a short time. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



63 



Of the pine reported for the Crowley's Ridge region by the agents of the tenth census, 
which estimate was made for 1880, comparatively little now remains. That census gave the 
following figures, which may not be wholly devoid of interest in this connection: 



COUNTIES. 



Phillips 

Lee 

St. Francis. 
Cross 



FEKT 
BOARD MEASURE. 



21,000,000 

14,000,000 

7,000,000 

54,000,000 



COUNTIES. 



Poinsett 

Craighead 

Greene 

Clay 



FEET 
BOARD MEASURE. 



45,000,000 

18,000,000 

38,000,000 

3,000,000 



It is safe to say that not one tenth of this timber is standing at the present time. The 
great pine producing areas south of the Arkansas River form, at the present time, the object 
of attention from the lumber manufacturer, so that it is possible that the pine producing 
areas in our section may have time for recuperation, since pine replaces pine in this region. 

VALUE OF ARKANSAS FORESTS. 



NAMES. 

Big Creek Lumber Co 

J. I. Porter & Co 

Frantc Kendall 

Bluff City Lumber Co 

H. C. Draughon & Co 

Bear State Lumber Co 

Dorchester 

Saline Lumber Co 

Moro Lumber Co 

Southern Land and Lumber Co 

Acruman & Son 

Fordyce Lumber Co 

Caney Lumber Co 

W. R. Pearson 

R. Buchanan 

Little Bay Lumber Co 

Eureka Lumber Co 

Cotton Belt Lumber Co 

Justice Lumber Co 

Freeman Lumber Co 

Eagle Lumber Co 

C. E. Linedecker 

Johnson Lumber Co 

Farmer 

J. E. Potts Lumber Co 

Keystone Mills 

J. W. Harrington 

American Lumber Co 

Cotton Belt Mill Co 

Magnolia Lumber Co 

A. J. Niemeyer Lumber Co 

W. M. Johnson 

J. M. & V. M. Davis 

W. t. Davis & Co 

Baker & Stange 

Bodcaw Lumber Co 

Sunny South Lumber Co 

Interstate Lumber Co 

Red River Lumber Co , 

Moore & Wells 

Cameron Lumber Co 

E. W. Frost & Co , 

Wm. Armstrong 

Gate City Lumber Co 

Martin Lumber Co 



STATION. 

Grace Ark, 

Tyrone " 

Kedron '* 

Anderson " 

Kingsland " 

Kingsland " 

Kingsland " 

Kingsland " 

Kingsland " 

Dry Run " 

Fordyce " 

Fordyce " 

Thornton " 

Thornton '* 

Thornton *' 

Little Bay " 

Harlow " 

Bearden '* 

Bearden " 

MiUville <' 

Eagle Mills " 

LiUey : " 

Van Duser *• 

Buena Vista '' 

Evans •* 

Evans " 

Stephens " 

Milner " 

Cotton Belt " 

Magnolia " 

W^aldo " 

Waldo •' 

Waldo "■ 

Buckner " 

Buckner *' 

Stamps " 

New Lewisville " 

New Lewisville " 

New Lewisville " 

Motts «' 

Cameron Mills " 

Genoa " 

Genoa " 

Texarkana " 

Bolinger " 



CAPACITY PER DAY. 



20 Thousand Feet. 

30 
40 

35 
35 
30 
20 

20 
20 

75 
20 

50 
20 

45 
30 
40 
40 

45 
20 

60 

75 
20 

25 
20 

75 
40 

10 

40 

40 

30 

50 
20 

25 

25 

15 
130 

50 
30 
50 
30 

30 
40 

25 
50 
30 



C"^> 




< 

H 

I— H 

K 
u 
<: 

o 

w 
X 
H 

o 

H 
Pi 
O 

o, 

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o 
o 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



65 



HISTORY OF THE ARKANSAS LUMBER INDUSTRY. 




BY MESSRS. R. W. HUIE AND FRANK R. PIERCE. 

A bird's-eye view of the State of Ar- 
kansas (a State larger than England, New 
York or Virginia, and when settled as thickly 
as Massachusetts, will have a population of 
12,000,000) would present to the vision of 
the beholder, in mountains, rivers, wooded 
valleys, uplands and lowlands, a wonderful 
kaleidoscopic panorama — a variegated, 
picturesque and extraordinary landscape. 
The presence and prominence of the ranges 
of mountains traversing its territory in dif- 
ferent sections would at once accentuate 
the densely timbered primeval forests which 
these embosom, while its great wealth of 
rivers presenting 3,250 miles of navigable 
waters, which wind their eternal serpentine 
courses, like so many vast ribbons of burn- 

CONCATENATED ORDER OF HOO-HOO. • u J "l 1 ^ fU^^„^U XTnf„,-o'c r^,,.,-. 

The Lumbermen^' Organization. ished Silver, aloUg Or thrOUgh NatUie S OWU 

forestry, would form a beautiful scene of reflected brightness for the expansive shading of 
growing vegetation that altogether would constitute a composite picture, which, to the true 
lumberman's heart, could scarcely fail of suggesting a veritable "Garden of the Gods" — if 
I may be pardoned for becoming somewhat rhapsodical on the subject of the State's timber 
resources, which of course constitutes the entire foundation for the vast possibilities of the 
future lumber business of the State, as well as of the past and present. Such a survey would 
disclose the fact that not a bald and barren region of rolling prairie constituted the one 
striking characteristic of the State, but that a bounteous timber supply, if the farm lands 
be excepted, would be the main feature in its contour and personnel. 

From "King's Hand Book of the United States" — just out, and the very latest pub- 
lished authority on the subjects upon which it treats — on page 65, I quote: "There are 
about 30,000 square miles of timber land in Arkansas, the most abundant being the yellow 
pine." There are 15,000 square miles of pine land. The cypress is found in the swamps 
of the east and south. Different species of oaks abound, the white oak being the most 
valuable. Yellow poplar occurs in the east and cedar is abundant in the northern mountains. 
Other valuable woods are walnut, cherry, sweetgum, hickory, beech, maple, elm and ash, 
persimmon, pecan, catalpa, sycamore, buckeye, dogwood and locust. " From these for- 
ests," continues this authority, " $20,000,000 worth of lumber is cut yearly, large shipments 
being made to Europe." Again, on page 68, appears the following quotation from Ex-Gov- 
ernor S. P. Hughes, and at present an Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, 
viz: "We know that Arkansas abounds in all the material elements of wealth and greatness; 
that she has over 2,000,000 acres of State lands to be donated to actual settlers, and that 
there are within her borders 5,000,000 acres of public lands of the United States subject to 
homestead entry, to be had in 160 acre tracts at a cost of not over $20 per tract. We are 
rich in timber, having 30,000 square miles of grand forests of the most valuable varieties ; 



66 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

rich in minerals, having over 12,000 square miles in coal fields, an abundance of iron, man- 
ganese, zinc, copper, marble, granite, limestone, lithograph and soapstone." Since Gov- 
ernor Hughes made this statement, immense deposits of valuable aluminum clay have been 
found in the State. Excepting the prairie lands and lands in cultivation, the whole State is 
heavily timbered. So much for the timber resources and possibilities of the great and rapidly 
developing State of Arkansas. 

Now, as to a history in brief, and a resume of the Lumber Manufacturing Industries of 
the State. Quoting once more from the volume to which I have previously referred, I take 
from page 68, the following extract: "The manufactures of Arkansas are small compared 
with the quantity of raw material found within her borders." Her coal, lumber, clays, mar- 
ble, chalk, building stone, whetstone, manganese and cotton, will undoubtedly cause the 
manufacturing interests to increase in the future. In 1880 there were in Arkansas 1,202 
manufacturing establishments, employing about 5,000 hands and a capital of $3,000,000. 
In 1887 the number of factories had increased to 2,400, employing 16,000 hands and capi- 
talized at $58,000,000. Flour and lumber mills employ the great bulk of this investment." 
Later on I shall present more in detail, larger and more comprehensive statistics, compiled 
from absolutely authentic sources, which show the present status and magnitude of the Arkan- 
sas lumber business, but for the present shall sketch briefly the birth and advent of the indus- 
try here. From the best authenticated information obtainable from living witnesses in this the 
southwestern part of the State, I conclude that the circular saw made its advent in this section 
not earlier than the 50s. Previous to that time the custom as to the manufacture of useful 
lumber, was to saw it from the rough logs by means of what was then called a "whip saw," 
a slab of notched iron, more cumbersome but not altogether unlike the familiar "crosscut 
saw" of the present. The only purposes for which manufactured lumber was used in the 
earlier days of the settlement of this State were those of flooring and constructing door and 
window shutters, when the boards were never dressed. The sawmill personnel then consisted 
of a hewn log, squared with the broadax, usually to about a foot square ; this was laid hori- 
zontally on a platform or trestle seven feet above the ground and a straight mark having been 
made on the stock thus prepared with a hne and some sort of colored liquid, for the guidance 
of the upper sawyer, one stout and brawny lumberman mounted the log and pulled the 
"whip saw" up from below and another sawyer underneath pulled the saw down from above 
through the log, and thus the two would produce possibly one or two hundred feet of lumber 
per day. This may seem a primitive method of producing boards, but such was the state of 
affairs in Southwest Arkansas within the memories of very many old settlers yet living, and by 
no means in their dotage. Indeed, I have in mind as I write this, a building yet standing 
and occupied as a residence, in Arkadelphia, Clark County, constructed in 1836, a material 
part of the original lumber with which it was built and is yet good, was sawed in this way, 
and one of the men who helped saw it thus is still living. This method constituted for a long 
while the principal, if not the only, way of producing lumber, all over the State, the excep- 
tions of water or other power being used, having been rare. With the great abundance of 
water power existing everywhere so conveniently, it was but a natural step upward in the 
evolution of the lumber business, to apply water-power to the driving of the "sash saw," a 
saw still like the crosscut, which worked in a frame and made its upward and downward 
strokes with accelerated speed and power so effectively as that a much better grade of lumber 
and a much larger quantity, ranging at from one to four thousand feet per day, was produced. 
This "sash saw" was undoubtedly the progenitor, probably the grandfather of the "gang 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 67 

saw" of to-day. It represented the "monkey stage" of the "gang saw's" evolution. The 
final appearance of the circular saw announced the awakening of a slumbering giant, destined 
by its activity and magnificent prowess to cause a buzz in the forest wilds of the State, that 
like the ominous booming of the long muzzled cannon, known of history, was "heard all 
around the world ; " and yet the use of the circular saw did not so rapidly augment, in vol- 
ume, the lumber industry, as such an event seemingly should have done, when the superb 
conditions for its growth were so auspiciously at hand in every locality ; previous to the 
advent of the great trunk railways which now traverse this State from different points of the. 
compass, binding her in close embrace to her sister commonwealths, the sawmill industry^ 
save in exceptional localities, did not assume anything at all like great proportions ; the 
great majority of all mills then existing were those of small capacities, and their fixtures, 
machinery and accessories were mechanical simplicities, and unwieldy and puerile seeming 
paraphernalia now. Even as late as in the 70s, in places where millions of feet are now cut 
per day, a production of 5,000 or 6,000 feet was rather a remarkable average daily output^ 
while an output of 10,000 feet of lumber in a day would have been an extraordinary product. 
In the absence of railway transportation facilities, such mills had only to supply the local 
demand, embracing an area of perhaps 15 or 20 miles of contiguous territory; then, lumber 
being hauled only along the ordinary dirt roads, in road wagons, drawn by mules, horses or 
oxen, was sold by the hundred feet, and a lumber bill for one purchaser footing up into the 
thousands of feet was indeed a "fat take," which to be sure came singly and never in whole 
battalions, so to speak ; nor was the taste so exacting then as it now is. The lumber busi- 
ness had not then become that precise science which experience and education with its lines, 
has throughout the State made it now to be. Then the quality of the product was not so 
critically considered, and classifications and gradations such as now obtain everywhere, had 
no existence in the main portions of the State. Lumber then like whisky, was all good^ 
some however, being better than other. "Culls" were not then so much thought or spoken 
of; were not so aggressively large in bulk then, as now this aggravating rubbish is wont tO' 
become. But if the output was small, and the average quality was not of a high grade, the 
prices commanded by it were truly compensating — then it was worth ^20 to $30 per 1,000 
feet at the mill, as compared with $14 per 1,000 feet of "first" at the mill now. But the 
construction in 1873 of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway from the Missouri 
State line across the entire State of Arkansas, having rendered possible the safe and rapid 
transportation to any of the open markets of the United States in particular, and with the 
outside world at large in general, of lumber as of any other valuable and indispensable com- 
modity, a new impulse all along the lines of that railway and its branches was given to the 
production of lumber in this State, and this also might be said of the completion later on of 
the "Cotton Belt" road, and of course applies to the construction of the Fort Smith Railway. 
In addition to this lumber product, there is also turned out annually, in the State, the 
following closely related forest products: Cedar posts and piling, 1,600,000 pieces; hick- 
ory, 1,000,000 feet; cypress shingles, 300,000,000; felloes and staves, i, '500, 000, 000 ; 
poplar, 8,500,000 ; ash, 20,000,000 ; spokes, 2,000,000 — the value of these swells the total 
value of the State's forest products to not less than $20,000,000. 



68 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 




A history of the lumber industry of Arkansas would not be complete without reference to 
Capt. R. W. Huie, whose portrait appears above. Mr. Huie is a native of Arkansas, was born 
in Waldron, Scott County, in the year 1845, received an ordinary country school education, 
served an apprenticeship as a tanner, volunteered his services to the Confederacy at the age 
of seventeen and served his country in the capacity of a soldier for a term of three years. 

After the war he engaged in mercantile persuits, which claimed his entire attention up 
to 1886, at which time, in connection with others, he organized the U. T. A. & M. Ry. Co., 
and the Arkadelphia Lumber Company, which companies he now represents in the capacity 
of general manager. In the year 1889, in connection with C. E. Neely and Dr. J. R. Dale 
he organized the Citizens Bank and was elected president, which position he still occupies. 

He claims that his reason for being a lumberman is that he was born in a house con- 
structed of yellow pine logs, floored, ceiled and covered with yellow pine boards, and rocked 
in a yellow pine cradle, in the yellow pine forests of Arkansas. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 69 

FRUIT GROWING. 



tn 



'It is too late in the day for any to dispute the proud pre-eminence of Arkansas as a 
fruit country. She wears at her girdle every Pomological scalp in sight, to-vvit: First prize 
for best apple in competition with 22,000 plates. First prize at World's Fair, New Orleans, 
1885, for best collection. "Wilder medal" for best seedling apple, and last, but not least, 
the first prize at Riverside, California. The horticultural world is at our feet and we are 
gently sighing for some one to tread on Pomona's skirt. The following list usually appears 
at our exhibitions, supplemented by eighty-eight seedling varieties : Early Harvest, Maiden 
Blush, Red Astrachan, Summer Queen, Alexander, Tetofsky, Early Joe, Early Strawberry, 
Early Red Margaret, Transcendent, Horse, Yellow May, Missouri Pippin, Yellow Trans- 
parent, Lady Finger, Rambo, Red June, Sweet Bough, Fall Queen, Oxhart, Wagner, Mam- 
moth, Pippin, Michael Henry, Shannon, Wine Sap, Northern Spy, Ben Davis, Hubbardson, 
Newton Pippin (green), Newton Pippin (yellow), McAfee, Pryor's Red, Jeniten Red 
Winter, Sweet, Shockley, Ingram, Rhode Island, Greening, Rome Beauty, Baskin's Red, 
Esopus Spitzenger, Royal Red, Willow Twig, American Golden Russett, Roxbury Russett, 
English Russett, Arkansas Beauty, Gilpin Lawror, White Pippin, Nickajack, Smith Cider, 
Roman Stem, Autumn Strawberry, Grimes' Golden, Hall's Seedling, Huntsman Favorite, 
Arkansas Black, Baldwin, Worthen, Kentucky Streak, Vandevere, Shocklow, Hatcher, White 
Winter, Pearmain, Yellow Bellflower, Gloria Mundi, Capp's Mammoth, Pound Pippin, 
Twenty Ounce, Fall Pippin, Schale's Seedling, Gill's Beauty, Croffelt's Red, Western Beauty, 
St. Lawrence, Lady Sweet, Tallman Sweet, Large Red Crab, Transcendent Crab, Virginia 
Greening, Pennock,. Buncombe, Fallawater, Golden Pippin, Buff, Fisher, Red Winter, 
Taunton, Seek-no-further, Renish, May, Western Beauty, Coffelt's Red Star, Mammoth 
Sweet, Golden Winter, Tune, Brightwater, Stephenson Golden, Elkhorn, Bently, Peck's 
Pleasant, Wilson Pippin, Russell's Red Streak, Paschall, Buckingham, Philadelphia, Graft, 
McLellan, Black Detroit, Wade's Swaar, McCaleb Tullahee, Pennsylvania Cider, Cole's' 
Redsteak, Crawford Pippin, King Tomkins County, Porter, Reed's Sweet, Clark's Red, 
Cole's Pearmain, Blue Pearmain, Kendrick's Golden, Green Stripe, Nugent's Pippin, Jona- 
than, Sweet Rambo, .Clark's Stripe, Domine, Newton Spitzenberg, Jersey Red, Fisher Seed- 
ling and Babcock. 

Pears. — Outside of Washington Territory we concede no superiority, and here only in 
a few varieties, most successful are Bartlett, Tyson, Beurre d'Anjou, Vicar of Wakefield, 
Onandago, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Osband's Summer, Lawrence, Benne Clairgau, Jefferson, 
LeConte, Flemish Beauty, Clapp's Favorite, Howell, Buffam, Bloodgood, Doyenne d'Ete, 
Beurre, Easter, Sekel, d'Aremberg, Early Harvest, Keiffer. 

Peaches. — In the mountain protected sections there has not been an absolute failure in 
thirty-five years. The favorite varieties are Arkansas Traveler, Wilder, Piquet's Late, 
Emelia, Elberta, Stump the World, Early Tillotson, Gary's Held On, Early Rivers, Salway, 
Porter, Mixon Cling, Beer's Smock, Briggs' May, F. St. John, Thurber, Nix's Late, Alex- 
ander, Columbia, Wheatland, Ringold, Chinese Cling, Harris' Early, Amsden, Mixon Free, 
Blood Cling, Lady Ingold, Gen. Lee, Susquehannah, Crawford's Early, Crawford's Late, 
Lemon Cling, Health Cling, Shumaker. 

Grapes. — Arkansas is the home of the grape and where tame varieties are planted the 
wild ones must be grubbed up. All the newer varieties are cultivated with more or less 
success. The favorite varieties are Ives' Seedling, Champion, Lenoir, Concord, Martha, 
Herbemont, Black July, Elvira, Delaware, Louisiana, Cunningham, Hermann, Norton's 
Virginia, Cynthiana, Lady, Neosho, Prentiss. 

A bottle of Arkansas red wine took the prize at Vienna in competition with the most 
prominent vintages of Europe. 

Ives' Seedling, Norton's Virginia, Champion, Cynthiana and Delaware have never known 
disease in our State." 



QA I Lg 



DESCRIPTION OF 



LITTLE ROOK, 
FORT SMITH, 
PINE BLUFF 



AND JEFFERSON COUNTY. 



&NI 



LITTLE ROCK. 



PREPARED BY THE LITTLE ROCK COMMERCIAL LEAGUE. 

Little Rock is the Capital City of the State of Arkan- 
sas and the county seat of Pulaski County. It is also the 
geographical, educational, legal, business and manufactu- 
ring center of the State, and the largest city. It lies 345 
miles southwest of St. Louis, 487 miles northwest of New 
Orleans, 366 miles northeast of Dallas, and 135 miles 
southwest of Memphis, and is the only city of much im- 
portance between all these points. It is located on the 
^.=„ banks of the Arkansas River, which gives it competing 
VjV water rates. The country surrounding it is mountainous 
Jt^'':j in every direction excepting the east, where the large cot- 
/ ton plantations lie. It is situated on a bluff with fine. natu- 
ral drainage, is well sewered and paved, both as to streets 
HEADQUARTERS ^"^ sldcwalks. Thcsc latter improvements have taken 

LITTLE ROCK COMMERCIAL LEAGUE. placc, practlcally, slncc the spring of 1887. 




RAILROADS. 

Railroads enter the city from every direction. The Missouri Pacific system has lines to 
St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Texas and Kansas City ; running out in five different di- 
rections. The St. Louis Southwestern Railway has lines North and South, and the Little 
Rock & Memphis Railroad Company has a line to the East. Still another line is building and 
is now within twenty miles of Little Rock, which, when completed, will give an additional 
Northern and Eastern connection with the Illinois Central system at- Helena, Arkansas. 

MISSOURI PACIFIC SHOPS. 

, The railroad shops of the Missouri Pacific Railway are located here and employ 800 
men. The shops of the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad are also located here and employ 
large number of men. ; 

ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAY. 

Little Rock has, without any question of doubt, the finest system of electric street rail- 
ways in the United Stales. All the cars start from the corner of Main and Markham Streets, 
that being the banking center of the city. These cars run in seven different directions to 
suburbs of the city. 

ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 

Little Rock is said to have more thorough electric lighting, and more electric lighting, 
proportionately to its population, than any city in the Union. There are three private 
companies operating plants for supplying electric lighting, both arc and incandescent; and, 
besides these, the city owns and operates its own plant for street lighting. 



TURNPIKES. 

Turnpikes radiating in six different directions furnish beautiful country drives, as well 
as magnificent roads for the farmers to market their produce. 



74 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



CAPITOL. 

The Capitol Building, being the headquarters of the State ofificers and the State 
Supreme Court, is beautifully located in the heart of the city, on the bluff overlooking 
the Arkansas River. 




COUNTY BUILDINGS. 

The Pulaski County Courthouse, the headquarters of the county officials, is a hand- 
some structure, built of granite blasted from Fourche Mountain just south of the city. The 
County Jail and County Hospital are modern buildings of recent construction, good design 
and well equipped. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



75 



STATE BUILDINGS. 

All the State buildings, with the exception of the State University, are located at Little 
Rock. The Insane Asylum buildings present a very imposing appearance on the hills in the 
west side of the city, and have magnificent quarters, sheltering about 700 inmates. The 
home for the Deaf Mutes is on a hill also in the western part of the city, overlooking the 
Arkansas River and new Army Post. The Arkansas School for the Blind is in the southern 
part of the city. These institutions are well managed, as are all of the State institutions. 
The State Penitentiary is also located at Little Rock ; its 800 convicts having recently been 
turned over to the State by the lessees, who formerly held them under contract. 

UNITED STATES BUILDING. 

The United States Government has a very handsome building here, sufficiently large 
to accommodate the Post Office, United States Land Offices, United States Courts, Collector 
of Internal Revenue and the United States Marshal's offices. 





BOARD OF TRADE. ' 



MASONIC TEMPLE. 



OTHER PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

There are some other public buildings — the City Hall, the Board of Trade and the 
Masonic Temple ; the latter building being the largest in the State. 

HOTELS. 

There are four first-class hotels — the Richelieu, Capital, Pratt's and Gleason's; the 
first three being on the American and the latter on the European plan. In addition to these, 
there are several smaller hotels in the city. 

RESIDENCES. 

While there are not many very expensive residences in the city. Little Rock is distinct- 
ively a city of homes, as nearly all the population own their homes. The proportion of 
rented houses, to the entire number, is relatively small. There are a number of beautiful resi- 
dence streets, with large yards and grounds in front of the houses ; the attractive trees and 
shrubbery which adorn them, add much to the beauty of the city. 



76 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



The Public Schools of the City of Little Rock are thoroughly organized, and up to date 
in every respect ; the buildings are new and of modern design. The staff of teachers is the 
best that money can command. The School buildings are built of brick, well ventilated, 
and are located in different portions of the city, according to the center of population^ 
affording facilities for educational advantages to both the white and colored races. 




COLLEGES. 

There are several Colleges in the city, the principal ones being the Little Rock Univer- 
sity and Philander Smith College, the latter being for the colored race. Besides these public 
institutions, there are a number of excellent private schools. 

r 

PARKS. 

The city has acquired, almost in its center, 39 acres of land for a park, and provision 
has been made for an annual tax for five years, which will furnish a sufficient amount to 
beautify and improve these grounds. This will be known as Arsenal Park. There are also 
several private parks in the city. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

ARMY POST. 



77 



The United States Government has recently acquired title to i,ioo acres of land adja- 
cent to and overlooking the city, which is on a commanding eminence known as Big Rock, 
rising abruptly from the Arkansas River several hundred feet, and gives a fine view not only 
of the city but of the entire surrounding country. The United States Government purposes 
spending over $1,000,000 on the grounds, and will keep at the post 3,000 soldiers, making 
it one of the largest posts occupied by United States troops. 




CHURCHES. 

Little Rock may well be called the City of Churches. There are now upwards of thirty 
within the city limits, of all denominations ; the buildings being, in the main, handsome 
structures.' 

WHOLESALE BUSINESS. 

The business of the city is represented by every branch of trade. Wholesale Grocers 
predominate ; there being also wholesalers in dry goods, hardware, hats, fruits, drugs, etc. 
The retail establishments of Litde Rock will compare favorably with any of the larger cities. 

REAL ESTATE. 

Real estate in Little Rock is not high. The city has never had a boom, and the steady 
advance in prices, even during the depreciation of the last three years, attests the stability 
values. The highest priced business property in the city is not more than $600 a front foot, 
while residence property on handsomely paved streets does not exceed $60 a front foot in 
value ; other properties range down from these prices to the low priced suburban property. 



78 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

BANKS. 

There are two national banks, three State banks and several private banks here, whose 
aggregated capital is upward of $1,000,000. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

The newspapers of the city are The Arkaiisas Gazette, an eight-page morning daily, and 
The Arkansas Democrat, an eight-page afternoon daily. A new afternoon daily has announced 
its appearance for the near future. Besides these, there are upwards of a dozen weeklies 
and several monthlies published here. 




WATER-WORKS. 

Little Rock has one of the finest systems of water-works and the best water in the 
country. The pumping station is located on the banks of the Arkansas River above the city ; 
the water is pumped from the river into reservoirs on a hill 300 feet above the pumps. 
These reservoirs have a capacity of 11,000,000 gallons; the water is then filtered by a 
mechanical system of fourteen lo-foot New York filters, located on the side of the reservoir 
hill. Connected with this water-works and filtering system are 36 miles of mains from six to 
twenty inches in diameter. Again, connected to the mains are 296 double fire hydrants, 
scattered throughout the city. The direct pressure on the mains in the business portion of 
the city is from 80 to 90 pounds to the inch. The pumps connected with this system have 
a daily capacity of 12,000,000 gallons. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



79 



MANUFACTORIES. 



In manufactories the city is rapidly coming to the front. The largest industry is the 
crushing of the cotton seed and the production of the cotton seed products. The Arkansas 
Cotton Oil Company operates a mill having a daily crushing capacity of 150 tons of cotton 
seed. The Southern Cotton Oil Company has in operation a mill of 200 tons of capacity. 
There are now being erected, and will be ready for business in the fall of 1893, two 
additional mills ; one of the Crescent Cotton Oil Company, with a daily capacity of 60 
tons, and one of the Consumers Cotton Oil Company, with a daily capacity of 120 tons. 
The oil product of these mills is used principally in lard compound. The hulls and a large 
portion of the meal are used for fattening beef cattle. Every season from 6,000 to 10,000 
head of cattle are fattened here for Chicago market ; they rank in quality with the best corn 
fed. What meal is not used in this enterprise is exported to Europe, or to the eastern and 
middle States, where it is used with hay and other roughness in feeding the native cattle. 
The linters (being short staple cotton taken from the seed) is largely used in Cincinnati and 
Philadelphia in the manufacture of cotton batting, cloths, cheap hats and twine ; the indus- 
try giving employment to hundreds of hands, ranging from skilled mechanics to common 
laborers. 

The best cotton baling press extant is built here. Presses have been made here and put 
up in sections, for carriage on camels' backs, and sent to Persia. The same company that 
makes presses, has patents for manufacturing a de-linter for thoroughly cleaning the lint 
from cotton seed, leaving the seed entirely clean. The lint is largely used in the manufacture 
of paper stock. 

Two factories for build- ■ ^"""' 

ing cotton elevators do a large 



business. 



large 



fiourins 



and grist mill is operated and 
there are several iron foun- 
dries and one cotton mill in 
the city. Two cotton com- 
presses are located here, one 
being the largest in the world, 
the building covering seven 
acres of ground. There are 
a number of smaller manu- 
facturing concerns, such as 
paint works, mattress factory, 
etc., etc. 










Plant of Thomas Manufacturing Co., Largest Cotton Press Builders in the World.' 



Little Rock has an ice factory with a daily capacity of 130 tons of clear ice, made from 
distilled water. 

There are eight wood-working establishments here, some of them of very large capacity, 
manufacturing all kinds of wood-work, such as sash, doors, blinds, oil barrels, whisky bar- 
rels, flour barrels, pipe staves, heading, barrel headings, spokes, handles and all kinds of 
wagon material. These industries employ a great many hands. Besides these, there is a 
furniture company which manufactures furniture, finding a ready sale for its output all 
through the State of Texas. 



80 



General luformation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



WATER COMMUNICATION. 

By the Arkansas River, water communication is had with St. Louis, Memphis, and New 
Orleans, as well as with all points on the small tributary rivers within the State. This State 
has more miles of navigable streams than has any other State in the Union. 

POPULATION. 

The population of Little Rock is about 30,000 people : Aigenta, now North Little Rock 
(or the Eighth Ward), having been taken in since census of 1890. 




HEALTH. 

The general health is good. From the reports of stations where the United States has 
troops, Little Rock is given as the healthiest of the stations: the highest death rate in a 
thousand being 48 at Norfolk; and the lowest being 1 1 at Little Rock. 

CLIMATE. 

The climate of Little Rock is temperate. Extremes of heat and cold are not known ; 
such a thing as a blizzard or a cyclone is unheard of in these parts. The average tempera- 
ture for the year, as shown by the reports of the United States Signal Service, is about 61 
degrees, which average was taken from a series of eight consecutive years. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

BRIDGES. 



81 



There are two bridges across the Arkansas River here, used both for rail and wagon 
traffic, and are owned by the Missouri Pacific Raihvay Company. Advertisements are now 
out for the construction of a new wagon bridge to be built by the county, which will prob- 
ably be located between the two present structures. This will greatly enhance the value of 
property on the north side of the river, and make it much more desirable for manufacturing 
and warehouse purposes. 




RESOURCES. 

The State of Arkansas abounds in all varieties of timbers and minerals, and Little Rock 
being the geographical and railroad center of the State, is consequently the most advantage- 
ous place for any kind of manufacturing enterprise that can utilize any of the products of its 
arable, mining and timber lands. Steam coal can be delivered at the door of the factory for 
considerably less than $2 a ton. Lumber, such as white oak, cypress, yellow pine, red 
cedar, hickory, etc., is cheaper here than any other place in America. In addition to the 
above woods, cotton-wood is rafted from the smaller tributaries to the Arkansas River and 
delivered at Little Rock cheaper than it can be had anywhere else. All woodworking estab- 
lishments have paid big dividends on the investmen';s, and will continue to do so. Furniture 
factories, stave and heading works, desk works, handle works and kindred industries, 
properly managed, can make big earnings. A car works would find its base of supplies 
here, instead of hauling the timber to Northern factories and paying freight. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 83 

TAXES. 

Taxes are comparatively light, being 2 cents and 175^ mills on a valuation of less than 
50 per cent of trading values. This includes all State, county, municipal and city taxes, and 
a special tax of five mills for school purposes. 

BONDED DEBT. 

The total bonded debt of Little Rock is ^135,000. This is infinitesimal on the total 
assessed values. 

GRANITE. 

Lying immediately south and adjacent to the city, within two miles of the city hall, are 
inexhaustible quarries of gray and blue granite. Among the prominent buildings built out 
of this stone are the county courthouse here and the courthouse at Dallas, Texas, This 
granite takes a very high polish and finish. The streets of Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., 
and Litde Rock, Arkansas, are largely paved with this granite. There is none better, either 
for building or paving purposes. 

COTTON MARKET. 

■ The Little Rock cotton market has the finest grades of cotton (outside of the Sea Island 
cotton) that are grown in the world, being the products of the river and creek bottoms ; 
besides this, the shorter staples can be bought cheaper here than anywhere. Cotton mills, 
for, the making of sheeting, jeans, ticking, cotton cloths, etc., if properly conducted, could 
not avoid earning dividends. 

OPPORTUNITIES. 

The State affords abundant oppor|unities to the manufacturer, the capitalist and the 
mechanic, or to any one who desires to invest or locate where the conditions of life are 
comparatively easy. To all such Little Rock extends a hearty welcome. We welcome 
alike the capitalist or the honest laborer. 

Any information desired will be cheerfully furnished by addressing 

•The Little Rock Commercial League, 

Little Rock, Ark. 




FT. S?vIITH. 

HISTORICAL. 

In 1817 the Government established a military post at the confluence of the Arkansas 
and Poteau Rivers, and called it Fort Smith. The border merchant, attracted by the profit- 
able traffic with the Indians and the safety afforded by his country's flag, soon settled around 
the fort, and the embryo American city was started. 

TRADING POST. 

As a trading post Fort Smith struggled along for many years, gaining slowly in popu- 
lation and trade while waiting for the westward march of steam-transportation. 

FIRST RAILROADS. 

The Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway was the first railroad connection, being com- 
pleted to Fort Smith in 1876. It was followed soon afterward by the St. Louis & San Fran- 
cisco Railway, which gave a decided impetus to Fort Smith trade, and from 1880 to 1884 
her population was more than doubled. Meanwhile, the Government having removed its 
fort, and having no further use for the ground upon which it was located, donated the site, 
comprising 360 acres of land, to the City of Fort Smith for public school purposes. The 
value of this gift may be appreciated when it is stated that less than half of the land has 
been sold for over $350,000, and is fairly well covered with handsome residences, public 
buildings and large factories. This is mentioned as one of the causes leading to the large 
influx of population which has occurred since 1884, giving Fort Smith in 1893 about 15,000 
souls. Other causes which have contributed to the same have been the building of railroads 
to Paris, Tex., Coffeeville, Kan., Greenwood, Ark., and Mansfield, Ark. ; the opening of 
the mammoth semi-anthracite coal fields of which Fort Smith is the center ; the partial de- 
velopment of a few of the many lines of profitable manufacturing that Fort Smith has peculiar 
advantages for, and the constantly increasing agricultural population in Western Arkansas 
and Indian Territory, which is almost exclusively tributary to the wholesale trade of Fort 
Smith, 

SUPERIOR LOCATION. 

Fort Smith is particularly fortunate in the absence of rival distributing points. Situated 
on the western boundary line of the State, where the Arkansas River breaks through the 
Boston Mountains, she occupies the only spot topographically available for a large city and 
easily accessible by railroads along that entire border. To the west lies the Indian Territory, 
a stretch of country nearly 400 miles square, and admittedly one of the most fertile sections 
of the Union, with Guthrie as the chief town, a place of 5,000 people, 200 miles distant. 
On the north no town of over 3,500 people for 175 miles, Springfield Mo., being the nearest 
wholesaling point, and Kansas City, which is 300 miles away, the nearest large city. On 
the east no town of over 2,000 people exists for 165 miles. Little Rock being the nearest 
wholesaling point in that direction, and Memphis, which is some 300 miles from Fort Smith, 
the nearest city of important size ; and on the south, 175 miles away, is Texarkana, the only 
town of commensurate size, with Dallas as the closest large city. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



8S 



Leaving aside consideration of the tributary Indian Country, which opened to settle- 
ment, would of course by itself build its supply point into a large city, and leaving aside alt 
account of its superior manufacturing advantages, which are of equal importance, will not 
Fort Smith increase in her size and commerce proportionately with the growth of the sur- 
rounding portions of Arkansas, now sparsely settled but inviting and beginning to receive 




CUSTOMHOUSE, FORT SMITH. 



the great influx of population from the colder and less fertile Northern States? And if so,, 
what will her future be when the Indian Territory becomes a State, and her manifold manu- 
facturing advantages have been availed of? 

AGRICULTURAL SURROUNDINGS. 

Fort Smith's tributary agricultural country consists of Western Arkansas and the Indian 
Territory. Western Arkansas land is of two kinds, the valley and river bottoms being one 
kind, and the hill and mountain lands the other. The former are almost entirely alluvial 
and are very fertile, producing cotton and corn abundantly. The latter produces wheat, 
oats, hay, potatoes and fruits, and berries in good quantity. The quality of these products 



86 Gerieral Inforjnation atid Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

can be judged from the fact that the premium wheat at the New Orleans Exposition came 
from an Arkansas upland farm, fifty miles from Fort Smith, and Arkansas apples have carried 
off first prizes in all contests of the past five years from Boston to California. The Indian 
Territory farm lands are generally prairie and river valleys and yield cotton and the cereals 
equally well. The acreage in cultivation in the Territory is increasing marvelously each 
year and is adding steadily to Fort Smith's distributive area. 

The market gardening industry in the vicinity of Fort Smith is assuming large propor- 
tions, over i,ooo acres being now planted in fruits and vegetables, which find ready sale in 
the markets of Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, Chicago and other Northern cities. The 
advantages for this business are peculiarly good in this immediate section, which, sheltered 
by the mountains, is some three weeks earlier in its crops than the region thirty miles north, 
and fully six weeks in advance of the latitude of Kansas City, only 250 miles north. The 
facilities afforded for reaching the markets are good and are being made better each year. 
Daily trains of express and refrigerator cars now leave Fort Smith in the spring and early 
summer, arriving in Kansas City and St. Louis in fourteen hours, and Omaha and Chicago 
in twenty-four hours. 

HEALTH. 

The following is quoted from a recent report on this subject by the secretary of the 
Fort Smith Board of Health, a prominent physician of many years' practice in the city: 
''There are no diseases especially peculiar to this city or vicinity. Typhoid fever of the 
kind usual in more Northern latitudes is almost unknown. We have never had an epidemic 
of diphtheria or scarlet fever, nor has yellow fever ever made its appearance here, this city 
being out of its zone. This climate is peculiarly favorable to chronic pulmonary diseases, 
the mountains to the north and west modifying the severe cold and sudden changes of 
winter, and the period being long in which the people can live in the open air. The mor- 
tality rate from all causes for the year 1890, was eighteen per 1,000 of population. This 
was to some extent increased by the prevalence of la grippe (which we are fortunately almost 
entirely free from this year), and further kept somewhat above the normal by the presence of 
a large number of witnesses in the criminal cases from the Indian Territory tried before the 
United States Court here, who expose themselves to sickness and death by their careless- 
ness ; and to the further fact that cities or towns having a public charity hospital, as is the 
•case here, draw a certain number of chronic and incurable cases from a large scope of con- 
tiguous territory. With an ideal climate, a perfect sewer system, a pure water supply, and 
no local causes for disease, there is no reason why Fort Smith should not always rank in 
point of healthfulness among the first cities of America." 

The executions of criminals tried by the United States Court (which has jurisdiction 
•over a large part of the Indian Territory, and consequently the largest criminal docket in 
the country), also enters into the Fort Smith death rate as given. 

It is the boast of Arkansas that she is free from the extreme heat of the South and the 
extreme cold of the North. The average rain fall is 54 inches, and the average tem- 
perature, 62 degrees, the highest during 1890 being loi. degrees, and the lowest 7 
•degrees. 

PUBLIC CONVENIENCES. 

Fort Smith has an excellent sewer system extending over the whole city, consisting of 
twenty-six miles of sewers. The water-works has twenty miles of pipe laid. The pressure 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



87 



is so great that fire engines are not used, the fire apparatus being hose carriages and hook 
and ladder trucks. The efficiency of the water system may best be shown by the fact that 
during the past three years the total loss by fire did not exceed $13,635, and that every fire 
was confined to the building in which it originated. The city is well lighted by gas and 
electricity, and is perhaps alone in the possession of two complete telephone systems. In 
addition to the foregoing it has nine miles of street railway, the different lines of which unite 
in the business portion and diverge to the various resident sections. 




COUKTHOUSE, FORT SMITH. 

Fort Smith has one of the handsomest and best equipped opera houses in the Southwest, 
which is visited annually by many of the best theatrical attractions in the country, en route 
to and from Texas and other Southern cities. 

TRAVELING FACILITIES. 

Fort Smith's completed railroads are the Little Rock & Fort Smith, Kansas & Arkansas 
Valley, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, running north into Missouri and south into Texas, 
and two short roads into the southern part of the county, extending to Greenwood and 
Mansfield. The Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railway, now building and completed to 



88 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

within loo miles of Fort Smith, is under contract to have its line to the city during the next 
year. This promises to be one of the important trunk lines of the country, being an air line 
from Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico, and the shortest possible route, built on the lightest 
grades, from the wheat region to tidewater. Another road which has five miles out of Fort 
Smith already constructed is the Fort Smith, Paris & Dardanelle Railway, projected to run 
ninety-five miles eastward along the valley of the Arkansas River. 

The Arkansas River is navigable for small boats all through the year, and for large 
steamers from the Mississippi for a part of the year. Before the advent of the railroads 
regular packet lines plied between Fort Smith and Mississippi River* points. The river 
business is now confined to local trade, which has so increased lately as to furnish a paying 
business to three boats owned by the merchants. The river transportation gives the city a 
considerable advantage in the matter of keeping railroad freights on heavy goods reasonable. 
Fort Smith, as a river town, being used as a basing point. 

MANUFACTURING ADVANTAGES. 

The manufacturing advantages of Fort Smith are unexcelled by any point in the country. 
It has cheap fuel. Water that will not injure the boilers. It has competing systems of rail- 
roads in every direction. It has timber in endless variety and almost without limit immedi- 
ately at its door. The country is rapidly developing and filling up, while there are but 
comparatively few to take advantage of the splendid openings. The manufacturing that is 
done here has grown up among our own citizens and almost exclusively on home capital. 
Every factory in Fort Smith is running to the extent of its capacity, and nearly all of those 
engaged in manufacturing would welcome others in the same lines. 

DESCRIPTIVE. 

Fort Smith is situated on the high bank of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers, the lowest 
part of it being at least twenty feet above the highest water mark, the greater part of it from 
fifty to seventy-five feet above. The surface of the ground is such as to furnish excellent 
natural drainage in every part of it. The corporate line on the west is the line between the 
State of Arkansas and the Indian Territory. There is no town of 3,500 inhabitants within 
165 miles of it. The nearest large city north is Kansas City, Mo. ; east, Memphis, and 
south, Dallas, Texas. Its topographical and geographical situation is all that could be asked 
to insure its growth almost independent of other surroundings. In 1880 it had a population 
of 3,000, which, in 1885, had increased to 6,000, and in 1893 to 15,000, of which but 
about 1,200 are negroes, and the percentage of colored inhabitants is steadily decreasing. 
But it is not dependent on its situation alone, which is equal if not superior to Kansas City. 
Mo., or any Western city of that class. It is the center of a fine agricultural and horticultu- 
ral section of country, in which the length of season is such that with intelligent farming, 
total crop failures, which so often occur in other sections, are virtually impossible. It is also 
the entry to the vast coal fields of Sebastian and Scott Counties in Arkansas and the Indian 
Territory, coal mining being carried on ranging from ten to fifty miles from the city. It is 
also the gateway to one of the finest mineral regions immediately south of it, where antimony, 
manganese, fire clay, gypsum and chalk are known to abound, and there is good reason to 
believe that lead, zinc and iron will be developed in paying quantities, and it is also sur- 
rounded with immense forests of valuable timber in almost limitless variety. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES. 



89 



There are few, if any, cities of the size of Fort Smith so well provided with school 
buildings and facilities. It has now six buildings which, together with the grounds, are 
worth ^175,000. Its advantages do not consist alone in its buildings. The school system 
is excellent and the teachers of a high order of talent. There are one superintendent and 
forty teachers employed at an aggregate monthly salary of $2,630. 

In May, 1884, Congress donated to this city the abandoned military reservation, to be 
sold by the city for the benefit of the public schools. This ground was subdivided into 




BELLE GROVE SCHOOL, FORT SMITH. 

about 1,200 lots, 50x140 feet. Taking the past sales of a part of this property as a criterion, 
it is reasonable to believe that a permanent school fund of upwards of $750,000 will be 
raised, the use of this being restricted by an act of the General Assembly for the purpose of 
preserving it as a permanent endowment fund. Properly guarded, the interest of this fund 
will be sufficient for many years to come to pay all the expenses of the schools in this city. 

In addition to the public schools there are two convent schools, a Lutheran school, 
commercial college, and several private schools. 

All prominent denominations are represented by churches, there being fifteen build- 
ings, aggregating in cost about $125,000. 



90 



General Infortnation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



COAL. 

This, perhaps, one of the greatest of civilizers, abounds at the very door of the city. 
The greater part of Sebastian County (in which Fort Smith is located) and Scott County, 
immediately south, is underlaid with coal, varying from thirty-two inches to seven leet in 
thickness. The coal in Sebastian County is found and mined within three miles of this city 
and at various other points in the county. The thickest veins now being mined are at 
Huntington, Greenwood and Jenny Lind basins, but equally as good basins have been found 
in other parts of the county not yet reached by the railroads. This coal is of that peculiar 
character called semi-anthracite. When properly mined it is free from sulphur. It is almost 
smokeless in burning and burns to an ash nearly as soft as wood ashes. Its analysis shows 
that it contains eighty per cent of fixed carbon, thus making it in all respects equal to and 
in some respects superior to the best steam-producing and domestic coal found in any other 
section of the country. The following is an average analysis of Sebastian County coal : 



Fixed Carbon 79-853 

Ash 5.999 

Water 915 



Sulphur 1.680 

Vol. hydro, carbon H'5S3 

Specific gravity, 1.327. 100.000 



Good Steam coal from these mines can be laid down at Fort Smith at eighty cents per 
ton. In Scott County, through which the Fort Smith & Southern Railroad is now building, 
are large fields of excellent gas and coking coal. In addition to this, in the Indian Terri- 
tory, on the railroad running from Fort Smith, Ark., to Paris, Tex., there are immense fields 
of gas and coking coal of the finest quality. In these fields there are two veins, each four 
feet thick, forty-two feet apart, dipping at an angle of thirty degrees. The nearest mine 
opened into this coal is about twenty-eight miles from the city. The output of coal in Sebas- 
tian County alone, during the past three years, has increased from 300 tons per day in 1887 
to 5, 000 tons per day m 1893, and will, within the next three years, be more than doubled. 

WHOLESALING AND JOBBING. 

Five years ago but comparatively little jobbing was done in the city. There are now in 
the city four exclusively wholesale groceries, two exclusively wholesale dry goods houses, 
one wholesale boot and shoe house, one wholesale clothing house, one exclusively wholesale 
hardware house, two wholesale liquor houses, one wholesale drug house, one wholesale 
crockery house, having a capital of upwards of a million dollars. In addition to these, there 
are twelve other establishments, the business of which is largely in the jobbing line. The 
field for this kind of business is almost limitless, and is constantly growing. The Indian 
country is rapidly settling up. There are already upwards of four times as many whites as 
Indians in the Territory, and it will doubtless be opened fully to settlement within five years. 
The new railroads being built will add very largely to the Territory legitimately belonging 
to the Fort Smith merchants. This class of business need only be limited by the amount of 
capital invested in it and the enterprise with which it is pushed. It has more than doubled 
within the past year and is steadily and rapidly increasing. 

MATERIALS FOR MANUFACTURING. 

Many of the raw materials which abound in the county surrounding Fort Smith are un- 
developed, owing in some cases to remoteness from transportation, and in more cases to lack of 
time, knowledge and capital on the part of our present citizens to investigate them. With the 
increased railroad facilities of the lines now building the first of these causes will be removed, 
and the opportunity is open to the reader to benefit himself in the removal of the second. 

The finest soft manganese (pyrolusite) is found in the country south of Fort Smith, and 
fifty miles beyond perhaps the largest deposit of antimony (stibnite) in the United States is 
located. The lead and zinc ores in the notthern part of the State are now being for the first 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



91 



time developed, and in that section and Southwest Missouri the mining is already extensive. 
The ores are mostly being shipped to LaSalle, III., for treatment, although Fort Smith, with 
its cheap and unsurpassed fuel and close proximity, affords good opportunity for the loca- 
tion of reduction works to handle them. Gypsum, marls, chalks and marbles, exist in the 
country tributary to Fort Smith, but have never been developed. The above are some of 
the raw material as yet new and untried. There are many whose present supply is unlimited 
and which can be very profitably manufactured at this time in Fort Smith, among them are 
the numerous clays found in the vicinity of Fort Smith, only one or two varieties of which 
have as yet been utilized. The shale-clay, known to geologists as the Akron shale, which 

^ ""^=^1, makes the best of sewer pipe and paving brick, is found 

in unlimited quantities. From this the brick were made 

to pave Garrison Avenue in this city, and a number of 

streets in other Western cities are now being paved with 

L^^ brick made of clay from the vicinity of Fort Smith. 




DuVAL SCHOOL, KOKT bMlTH. 

Few realize the value of these clays. Two large plants are now running to their fullest 
■capacity in the manufacture of paving brick alone, and a third one is now being put in, and 
they have orders enough ahead to keep them at work for a year. The demand for a good 
paving brick is so great and the material from which it can be made is found in so few 
places that this industry alone will, from the present oudook, employ i,ooo men at Fort 
Smith in a very few years. The analysis of the shale used for this purpose, as given by 
Prof. Branner, State Geologist, is as follows : 



Silica 58.43 per cent. 

Alumina 22.50 " 

Oxide of Iron 836 " 

Magnesia 1.14 " 

Potash 2.18 " 



Soda 1.03 per cent 

Sulphur 0.16 " 

Loss on ignition 6.87 " 



100.99 



Brick made from this clay and tested at the School of Mines, Columbia College, New- 
York City, stood a crushing stress of 170 tons, or more than 5,500 pounds to the cubic inch, 
very nearly as much as the hardest of granite will stand. 

Any further information concerning Fort Smith will be cheerfully furnished upon appli- 
cation to ChaiTiber of Commerce, Fort Smith, Ark. 



PINE BLUFF. 

Pine Bluff is the only city in Jefferson County. It is one of the three principal trade cen- 
ters of the Valley of the Arkansas River, the other two being Little Rock and Fort Smith. It 
has a population of 12,000 and is rapidly growing. It differs from many cities of the State, in 
commanding a larger area of trade than is common. It is estimated that one-third of the 
commerce of the alluvial delta of the State is controlled by citizens of Pine Bluff. In ascend- 
ing the Arkansas River, it may be said to be the dividing limit of the upland and lowland 
country. Citizens of Pine Bluff own 206,420 acres of the farm lands of the county, and 
receive a rental of over ^500,000. The timber distribution controlled by the city is difficult 
to estimate ; the number of sawmills on the St. L. S. W. Railway, tributary to it, is 80, with 
a daily cut of 1,000,000 feet. The number of sawmills on the Valley Route, known also as 
the L. R. , M. R. & T. Railway, is 20, with a daily cut of 300,000 feet. The product of 
these mills, chiefly pine lumber, though diverted at the extremes to other cities, is fairly 
within the reach of Pine Bluff. 

The amount of cotton handled by Pine Bluff merchants for the year ending September 
I, 1892, is given at 100,000 bales, worth $4,000,000. 

The growth of the city has been rapid for the past seven years. The St. Louis South- 
western Railway has its general machine shops here, and disburses annually for station ser- 
vice the sum of ^780,000. Its works are being enlarged, so that a much larger force of 
workmen will soon be employed. The development of the uplands and bottom lands tribu- 
tary to the city is another source of growth to it ; while the universal feeling of confidence 
has called into action many hitherto latent powers. 

The town of Pine Bluff, having been surveyed by John E. Graham, was incorporated 
in 1836, and embraced only forty-five blocks. The area of the city is now one and three- 
quarter miles wide and two and one-half miles long, and embraces 2,600 acres of land. 

TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 

Estimated business done at Pine Bluff by the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, during 
the year ending June i, 1893 : 



BUSINESS RECEIVED. 

800 cars lumber 20,369,515 feet. 

2,000 cars various merchandise 67,910,889 lbs. 

12,000 bales cotton 5,530,432 lbs. 



BUSINESS FORWARDED. 

200 cars lumber 5,530,432 feet. 

1,612 cars various merchandise 33A3Sj3^^ lbs. 

24,000 bales cotton ii>777.543 lbs. 



THE PINE BLUFF & EASTERN RAILROAD. 

This road has at present only 30 miles of road built, but passes through a rich cotton 
region and handles a large amount of freight, chiefly cotton and cotton seed, though mer- 
chandise and plantation supplies are also shipped. It connects with the St. Louis South- 
western Railway, eight miles from Pine Bluff, and has facilities for through freight. The 
amount of gross earnings are about $30,000. 



94 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

MISSOURI PACIFIC R R. 



FREIGHTS FORWARDED PAST 12 MONTHS. 

Lumber 720 cars. 

Livestock 15° 

Mdse, grain, hay, meal, meat, flour, etc.... 2,450 " 

Cotton bales per season, Sept. to Sept 40,000 bales 

Tonnage on above: 

Lumber 27,600,000 lbs. 

Live stock 3,300,000 " 

Mdse, grain, hay, meal, meat, flour, etc 54,600,000 " 
Cotton bales 20,000,000 " 

Total tonnage 105,500,000 lbs. 

Passenger traffic per annum $5,900 



FREIGHTS RECEIVED PAST 12 MONTHS. 

Lumber 600 cars. 

Live stock 156 " 

Mdse, grain, meal, sugar, molasses, etc.. 3.050 " 

Cotton bales per season, Sept. to Sept 15,000 bales. 

Tonnage on above: 

Lumber 24,000,000 lbs. 

Live stock 3,432,000 " 

Mdse, grain,meal,sugar,molasses, etc 73,203,000 " 
Cotton bales per season, Sept. to Sept. 6,510,000 " 

Total tonnage 107,145,000 lbs. 



Jkfkerson County. 

This county, which is now to engage our special attention, possesses many attractive 
quahties. Its location is in Southeastern Arkansas, where is situated the richest corn and 
cotton lands. A view of the map will show how it is divided midway by the Arkansas River, 
whose numerous landings for steamboats afford facilities for travel and transportation. 

The latitude of Pine Bluff, the capital and center of the county, is 34 degrees north, 
and longitude 15 degrees west from Washington. The county is 29 miles square, contain- 
ing 841 square miles, or 538,240 acres. Its population, white and colored, in 1870, was 
15,714; in 1880, 24,000; in 1890, 40,821. The colored people form three-fourths of the 
population. Their preponderance up to the present time is owing to the richness of the 
bottom lands, to which they are acclimated, and the almost exclusive growth of cotton and 
corn, to which their unskilled labor is adapted. These bottom lands are just what similar 
lands in Illinois were fifty years ago ; undrained swamps are close by, and no diversity of 
crop to call for better labor and better modes of living. The creek bottoms and uplands 
are best for new white settlers until the lowlands are more open and better drained. 

Besides the Arkansas River, Bayou Bartholomew winds its way through the county. 
There are several mineral springs, though the waters have not been analyzed : White Sulphur, 
Cantrels, Lees and Germans. Noble's Lake, Lake Dick and Horse Shoe Lake are the only 
lakes of considerable size. 

LANDS. 

All the land on the north side of the Arkansas River is bottom land ; almost all on the 
south side is upland, The following is a classified statement of county lands: 



Acres. 

Bottom land 363,000 

Uplands 175,000 

Land in cultivation 90,000 

Unimproved land susceptible of cultivation. .370,000 



Acres. 

Vacant United States land 15,000 

Land belonging to L. R., M. R.&T. Ry 10,000 

Acres in cotton 67,450 



The bottom land belongs to the alluvial delta and its productive power may be known 
from the fact that in 1890 the number of bales of cotton made was 75,000. Excepting a 



General Lifonnation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 95 

single county in Mississippi, tliis was a greater amount than was raised in any county of any 
of the Southern States. The capacity of the county is susceptible of a vast increase. In 
the bottom lands the soil is sandy, sandy loam and stiff clay ; in the uplands it is light, except 
in the creek bottoms. 

PRICE OF LAND. 

To make knOwn to those at a distance the exact price of land, is not possible within the 
limits of this pamphlet. Very much depends upon the character of the soil, the location and 
improvements. A fair estimate may be made from this schedule : 

Per Acre. 

Uncultivated and unimproved upland $ i.oo to $10.00 

Uncultivated and unimproved bottom land _ i.oo to 20.00 

Improved and cultivated upland 2.00 to 3000 

Improved and cultivated bottom land lo.oo to 50.00 

PRODUCTS. 

FIELD. 

The climate and soil are very favorable to almost every crop, and no country affords so 
many days on which outdoor work may be performed. The chief field products are cotton, 
corn, wheat, oats, rye, sorghum, peas. Several grasses do well : clover, timothy, orchard, 
redtop and millet. 

The most luxuriant native grasses, though natural enemies to cotton, are Bermuda and 
Johnson. The Johnson grass is an alternative crop and as a fertilizer for corn is good. 

GARDEN. 

Vegetables of nearly every known kind grow here planted as early as February. In the 
bottom lands fertilizing is unknown, but in the uplands it is beneficial. Spring and fall cab- 
bage are easily grown on the same ground. Two crops of Irish potatoes and corn are of 
frequent occurrence. Cauliflower and kindred plants thrive ; 400 bushels of sweet potatoes, 
200 of Irish potatoes, 500 of onions and 800 of redtop globe turnips to the acre are not 
uncommon crops. The climate is so genial to vegetable growth that gardeners as a rule 
maintain a garden the year round, and every day their wagons are to be seen on the street 
laden with vegetables. The truck garden industry has developed more in the past five years 
than any other factor in the advancement of our people, and it is worthy of note that our 
local gardeners have depended solely upon home patronage. In a little while arrangements 
whh the railroads will be made for regular transportation of vegetables and then the truck 
gardeners will be able to rely upon a regular market. 

STOCK RAISING. 

The luxuriant vegetation of natural and artificial grasses affords excellent grazing for 
horses, cattle and sheep. Cane, which thrives in lowlands, affords the year round a 
nutritious food for stock. The Jersey and Holstein breeds of cattle have been successfully 
introduced for dairy purposes. So far we have not many regularly established stock farms, but 
the business is beginning to develop. The mildness of the climate saves the great expense of 



96 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

costly stables, which falls so heavily upon farmers in the North and East. At the same time, 
stables sufficient to protect against the rain and spells of comparatively cold weather are not 
to be dispensed with by the wise farmers. Hog raising is also a lucrative business. 

GAME AND FISH. 

Wild turkey, deer, duck, geese, and many kinds of small game are found ; occasionally 

bear is met with. 

In the numerous small lakes, game fish is found ; in the Arkansas River catfish, drum 
and buffalo are abundant, and easily caught. 

MANUFACTORIES. 

The openings for manufactories are numerous. Woodworking, furniture, hub and 
spoke factories ; shingle and sawmills ; wagon and carriage factories ; not to mention cotton 
factories, which, when properly organized and worked, would well repay an investment. The 
year round navigation of the Arkansas River, and the numerous railways, afford facilities for 
transportation. New enterprises meet with the approval of, and receive material assistance 
from, local capitaHsts. Nothing now is so much needed as the establishment of manufac- 
tories. 

The following are some of the factories now successfully established: 

Pine Bluff Mill and Elevator Company ; has a daily capacity of 650 barrels of bolted 
meal and a corresponding quantity of chops, etc. 

Riggins' Planing Mill; makes shingles, doors, windows, mouldings, brackets, counters, 
shelving for drug stores and bars. Deals in rough and dressed lumber. 

Bluff City Lumber Company. 

The St. Louis Stave and Lumber Company are operating a large plant in the western 
suburbs of town, with a weekly capacity of 75,000 staves of oak, cypress and heading. New 
machinery, increasing the capacity, is being constantly added. They find the timber here 
to be the best of the many plants in the Southwest. 

Emma Oil Mill, which ships immense quantities of cotton seed oil, meal, cake, hulls 
and potash. 

Dilley's Foundry. 

Ice factory and two large cotton compresses. 

Public Steam Cotton Gin, with all modern improvements, and a capacity of fifty bales 
of cotton per day. 

There are several other smaller plants — cigar, broom, carriage, wagon, etc. 

MINERALS. 

An inexhaustible quantity of marl is found on the Arkansas River in the northern part 
of the county, which has nevei been developed. The beds are on the river bank, and 
it could readily be transported to market in barges. The vein or bed of the marl runs in a 
southwesterly direction and crops out on the surface in many places. The L. R., M. R. & 
T. Railway crosses one part of the vein. Coal and other minerals in small quantities have 
been found here and there, but no special notice has been taken of them. 



i 



(?^IK9 



SHORT ARTICLES 



SHOWING THE 



PRODUCTIONS :mb: resources 

OF THE 

STATE 

BY 

SECTIONS AND COUNTIES. 



1) 



NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. 



BY A. C. HULL, EDITOR BOONE BANNER. 

There are a great number of people from various portions of the Union, wanting 
information concerning Northwest Arkansas. They are, farmers seeking a home in some 
more congenial locality ; business men who wish to cast their lot with us ; capitahsts seeking 
investment for their thousands ; all classes and conditions of men, who, hearing of the great 
advantages of this favored section, fain would strike their tents and like the Arab silently- 
steal away to this goodly land of ours. This pamphlet is issued in order that the world may 
know what we are and what we have. 

Why pry around with a dark lantern and jimmy in the dim moonlight in order to find a 
change that will lift you out of your present gloomy surroundings, when there are thousands 
of opportunities being presented in broad daylight right under the glare of the noonday sun? 
Now, get your map and see where Northwest Arkansas is. When you find it, you will find 
one of the best agricultural portions of the Southwest — best climate in the Government — no- 
extremes of heat or cold, and no malaria. 

No section of the Southwest is growing more rapidly now than Northwest Arkansas. 
There are good reasons for this rapid advance, prominently among which is our vast mineral 
wealth, which, until recently, has been overlooked by the capitalist, while fields in other 
sections have received the entire attention of those wise enough to make the venture of 
investment in the South. 

So successful have been some of our Southern enterprises, that now the tide of Northern 
and Eastern money, flowing in our direction, grows brighter every day. The desire for 
profitable investment in the South has caused the mineral regions to be examined and looked 
into more carefully, all of which has brought to light our vast possibilities ; and in conse- 
quence of which Northwest Arkansas is beginning to claim its share of attention. Our 
previous dormant condition has been of such long duration, while development seemed to 
progress all around us, that now the movement in the direction of development, as started, is 
most active, and to that extent are we attracting the attention of not only capital, but rail- 
road projects as well, and every week brings numbers of prospectors and capitalists, seeking 
investment in our hills, and fresh and encouraging news looking to railroad construction 
through our rich country. And while this state of affairs is indeed encouraging, it is not going 
to remain so long. It cannot do so — it is impossible. Why? Because a country which con- 
tinues to attract so much public attention, so much favorable and no unfavorable comment, 
from every point of the compass, a country that fully sustains every report of its wonderful 
advantages, to all who investigate for themselves, is bound to bring about a still greater 
revolution,' and one that will continue until we have a network of railroads, and every hill 
almost shall be a mining camp, every valley and plane rich in fruits and products of agri- 
culture, everybody prosperous, and Northwest Arkansas one of the richest countries in the 
world. In this connection we reproduce a portion of an article which appeared in the 
Boone Banner of issue of March 26, 1891, under the head "North Arkansas Compared 
with Other Parts" : 



100 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

Capitalists, manufacturers, farmers, miners and home seekers should know and bear in mind that Boone, 
Newton, Searcy and Marion Counties, Arkansas, four Counties composing a compact body of considerable 
dimensions in North Arkansas, contain about the largest field and richest deposits of zinc of any section in 
the United States. And in this estimate we have not included our valuable copper mines, our rich and 
extensive lead deposits, our hundreds of miles of inexhaustible marble, our mountains of "the precious onyx 
stone," our pure saccharoidal sandstone from which glass may be manufactured, our wonderful caves that 
for beauty, grandeur, curiosity, proportions and real worth as pleasure resorts, rival the famous Mammoth 
Cave of Kentucky, or the Luray Caverns of Virginia. In addition to this, we have the kaolin, the iron, the 
manganese, the tallow and fire clay, etc., of other sections of the State. And all these rich, invaluable and 
inexhaustible deposits are imbedded under a section of the most desirable agricultural and fruit lands in the 
State — a region second to none for the excellence of its farm products. 

Northwest Arkansas occupies an elevated depression between the Ozark range of moun- 
tains on the north and the Boston range on the south. The mean elevation is about 1,500 
feet above the sea level. Springs and streams of pure water abound, all of them tributary to 
AVhite River, which has its source in Washington County, runs through Benton County into 
Missouri and enters our State again in the northeast part of Boone, running across the corner 
of the county, thence through Marion County, and forming the line for quite a distance be- 
tween Marion and Baxter Counties. Many of the springs possess remarkable medicinal 
properties, and many of the streams are capable of furnishing unlimited water power for the 
running of machinery. 

This is as healthful a country as can be found anywhere. There are no reasons why it 
should not be so — there are no natural causes of sickness here — the country is high and 
well drained, and there are no stagnant waters or swannps of any kind, and the climate is 
temperate and salubrious. The soil is generally very productive — exceedingly so in many 
localities, and well adapted to the growth of everything that will grow anywhere else in the 
temperate zone. Northwest Arkansas is in general a finely timbered country, and our peo- 
ple stand ready on demand to supply our timberless neighbors with any amount of timber of 
the hardwood varieties. 

The writer has never seen a country so well adapted to fruit growing as this is. It 
seems to be the natural home of all kinds of fruits that grow in the United States. We will 
be pardoned if we brag about our fruits and minerals, for the fruits have taken the highest 
premiums wherever they have been exhibited, and the mineral specimens are now on exhi- 
bition at Chicago that will take the ppemiums. But we will pay particular attention to these 
two products later on. The general characteristics of the counties in Northwest Arkansas 
are very much the same. Some of them have fertile lands, a greater population and better 
outlet to the outside world than others, otherwise what is said of one may be said of 
another. 

GENERAL RESOURCES. 

The material resources and advantages of this region are yearly becoming more apparent. 
Its river valleys are among the most fertile in the world ; its great prairies are covered with 
thrifty homes, and afford rich pasturage for stock ; its extensive forests yield every variety of 
wood which man can utilize, and its hills and mountains are treasure houses of valuable ores. 
In many of the world's great expositions, displays of our agricultural products liave taken 
Tank with those of California, Illinois and other States famed for their products of the farm. 
Cotton and hay in the south, and lumber, cereals, minerals, and fine-blooded stock in the 
north, make our State well adapted to the material wants of man. Railroads traverse most 
of the State (Northwest Arkansas containing the largest belt of country in the State not 
traversed by railroads), and there are several large cities within the State's borders. 



Gejieral Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 101 

In regard to climate, we are situated in a country where is effected the transition from 
the freezing blasts of the North to the torrid atmosphere of the South. Here, in this salu- 
brious clime, the happy farmer can, in a literal sense, "sit under his own vine and fig tree," 
beneath the arching canopy of skies which rival in beauty the soft, azure skies of Italy. 
Protected alike from the extremes of heat and cold, by the forest-clad hills, he can live in 
peace and plenty, and enjoy the fullness of Nature's lavish gifts. This is no Eden, however ; 
and while we do not claim it to be the best country in the world, we can safely say that it 
has no superior, concerning its varied advantages and unlimited resources. 

Arkansas has been maligned and underestimated by rival States in the North, but now 
she is emerging from this false obscurity, and shines as bright as any star in our national 
constellation. In education, in agriculture, in art, in business tact and ability, in all that 
conduces to the material prosperity and wellbeing of a commonwealth, she is unexcelled. If 
you are a farmer, and want a peaceful home in a fruitful land, come to Northwest Arkansas ; 
if you are a merchant, and desire a lively trade, come ; if you are a professional man and 
would make a success of your business, come ; if you are a capitalist seeking a paying in- 
vestment, come to Northwest Arkansas. But do not come with the expectation that dollars 
grow as spontaneously as do our wild fruits, for they do not ; you must work for them the 
same as in any other country. Yet, we say a comfortable living can be had here with as 
little labor as anywhere. We invite all to come and see. 

COUNTIES. 

That part of Northwest Arkansas north of the Boston Mountains is composed of the 
Counties of Boone, Baxter, Benton, Carroll, Madison, Marion, Newton, Searcy and Wash- 
ington. 

BOONE COUNTY. 

Boone is the sixty-third county in the State in the order of organization. It was organ- 
ized August 9, 1869, from territory taken from Carroll and Marion Counties, and having an 
area of 648 square miles. It is a northwestern county, and is almost square. It is bounded 
on the north by Taney County, Missouri, on the east by Marion County, south by Searcy 
and Newton Counties, and west by Carroll County. It is situated in latitude 37° N., and 
longitude 16° W. from Washington. When the county was organized, the seat of justice was 
temporarily established at the house of H. W. Fick, but it was soon after removed to Har- 
rison, which is still the county seat. 

ITS TOPOGRAPHY. 

Boone County lies in that great semi-plateau which stretches from the Ozark Mountains 
in Missouri, to the Boston Mountains in Arkansas, and embraces a large portion of the 
renowned valleys and fertile prairies of North Arkansas. The country is diversified with 
forest and prairie, with upland and valley, with Alpine scenery and broad-stretching, fertile 
homesteads. About one-fifth of the area of the county, or 83,000 acres, consists of undulat- 
ing, gently rolling prairies, covered, when not in cultivation, with luxuriant native grasses. 
The main prairies are Baker, Rolling, Huzza, Gaither and Marshall, and these are covered 
with large, well-fenced, well-tilled and productive farms ; here are broad fields of corn, 
wheat, oats and other cereals such as are found in the North and West, famed as the granaries 
of the world ; here are as good roads as can be found anywhere ; here are extensive meadows 



102 General Inforination and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 



teeming with their wealth of sweet-scented clover, timothy and other tame grasses, which 
grow here in abundance ; here are large, commodious frame residences, while near by may 
be seen the rude log cabin which served as a home for the hardy pioneer who first set foot 
in these wilds, determined to wrest a home from the bountiful, but yet undeveloped, treasures 
which Nature had vouchsafed this favored section, and who, surmounting all the difficulties 
which beset the early home seeker, is now enjoying the fruits of his labor in peace and plenty. 

The forests consist mainly of oak, of which there are seven distinct varieties, hickory, 
ash, sycamore, elm and many other deciduous trees, besides large areas of pine and cedar 
lands. Our pine is the source of much of the wealth of the county, and there are several 
sawmills kept busy in supplying lumber for the home demand. 

The county is well watered with numerous springs, brooks and creeks, which flow from 
almost every hillside. White River, a tributary of the Mississippi, flows through the northeast 
■corner of the county; Long Creek in the north, is a fine stream; farther south we come to 
Bear Creek, fed by the exhaustless fountain of Bear Spring ; next we find Crooked Creek, 
a large stream which rises near Gaither Mountain in the southwest part of the county, and 
flows in a northeasterly direction, and finally empties its waters into White River. Besides 
these, there are numerous small rivulets and rills, such as the poet tells us about, abounding 
•with fish and watering the fields through which they flow. The valleys of the larger streams 
.are generally wide and very productive. 

HARRISON. 

Our greeting, this fair City of Boone, 

Our hope and our country's pride, 

Whose fame, extending far and wide, 
Outrivals the sun at meridian noon; 
Enshrined 'mong thy protecting hills 

That hold thee in their fond embrace, , 

Thou art of peace the trysting place; 
Embowered in flow'rs, thy beauty thrills 

The poet-mind, the artist-hand, 
And bids them paint, with pen and brush, 

The splendors that thy homes command; 
Far from the world's turmoil and rush, 

And avarice of the men of state, 

We hail thee as the "Future Great." 

Harrison is beautifully situated on Crooked Creek, near the center of the county. It 
•was platted as a city about i860, and now has a population of over 1,800. Many express 
their wonder at finding such a thriving town nestling among the hills of North Arkansas. 
Commercially, Harrison is more favorably situated than any of her sister cities, being the 
central point of a large territory rich in products of field, forest and mine. As yet, we have 
no railroads, but four surveys cross here, and it is but a matter of a few years when we shall 
have direct transportation to the markets of the East, North and South. With all the varied 
and unsurpassed resources of the adjacent territory, combined with its many natural advan- 
tages, Harrison is destined to be the metropolis of the region lying north of the Boston 
Mountain. Away from the rush and stir of Eastern cities, in a healthful locality, with the 
best of society, with good schools, superior religious influences — what better home could one 
■desire? We have a large, two-story brick schoolhouse, in which school is taught ten months 
-each year. The religious interests of the town are watched over by the Presbyterian, Cum- 



, General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 103 

berland Presbyterian, M. E. and M. E. South, Christian, and Baptist churches. All have 
houses of worship, and the brick edifice which the Christian Church is now building will cost 
^7,000, and will surpass anything of a like nature in this portion of the State. All in all 
Harrison is the place to live. 

BAXTER COUNTY. 

Baxter was the sixty-eighth county formed, which was March 24, 1873, out of territory 
taken from the Counties of Marion, Fulton, Izard and Searcy. Baxter is a northern border 
county, and its area is about 600 square miles. In surface the county varies, part being 
hilly and part level and undulating valley lands. The soil is generally fertile and very pro- 
ductive. In addition to that, portions of the county are rich in minerals, marble and onyx. 
There is no railroad in the county, the nearest railroad point being fifty miles distant. There 
are over forty schools kept open from three to eight months in the year. There are about 
thirty churches in the county, embracing the different denominations. The towns of the 
county are Mountain Home, the county site, Gassville, Big Flat, Lone Rock and Colfax. 

BENTON COUNTY. 

Benton, the thirty-seventh county created, was formed by Act of September 30, 1836, 
out of territory taken from Washington County, and was named after Thomas Benton, Mis- 
souri's greatest statesman. The county seat is located at Bentonville. Benton County is in 
the extreme northwest corner of the State, having the Missouri line for its northern boundary 
line, and the Indian Territory for its western border. Its area is about 900 square miles and 
its population about 35,000, with perhaps a colored population of 500. Its surface presents 
wooded, mountainous, rolling country and open prairie, interspersed with creek bottom 
lands. The growing of grain, corn, wheat, rye, oats and grasses, with fruits and tobacco, 
are the chief productions. Very little cotton is raised ; the county is well watered with small 
streams, but none navigable. Some mineral indications are to be found in the county. But 
the chief and most profitable industry of Benton now is the fruit culture. Bentonville, the 
county seat, is a city of about 3,000 inhabitants. It lies near the center of the county, and 
is reached by a branch from Rogers of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. The town 
dates its existence from the year 1837. 

United States Senator James H. Berry and ex-Congressman S. W. Peel are prominent 
■citizens of Bentonville. 

CARROLL COUNTY. 

Carroll was the twenty-sixth county formed, created November i, 1833, out of territory 
taken from Izard County. It was named in honor of Charles Carroll, the last surviving 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose death was then fresh in the minds of the 
people. Carroll's area is about 640 square miles. In surface it presents a variety of kinds 
of country, being mountainous, hilly, alluvial and prairie. Corn and other grain are grown 
principally. Fruits do well. A railroad runs twenty miles into the country, from Seligman, 
Mo., to Eureka Springs. Marble and lead both exist to more or less extent. The famous 
Eureka Springs in the county, which began to attract attention for their curative properties 
about 1879, have attained great fame for their medicinal virtues, and have performed many 
wonderful cures and attract great numbers of visitors annually. The population of Eureka 
Springs is 5,000. It is a city of the first-class and has a full set of officers. The peace and 
order of the city is good. The people are largely church going, there being seven church 
houses in the city. 



104 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

The citizens, knowing the purity and curative properties of the waters, and the advan- 
tages to be gained by the healthy location, have resolved to make their city an educational • 
center and the work is already begun. The Interstate Summer Normal and Educational 
Assembly have erected a building with a seating capacity of 5,000, in which a Normal School 
is held each summer, and attended by teachers from various parts of the United States. 

Berryville, the county seat, is an interior town, near the center of the county, twelve 
miles from Eureka Springs. Its population is about 800 or 1,000. The famous school 
known as Clarke's Academy is located there. 

MADISON COUNTY. 

Madison, the thirty-sixth county created, was formed September 30, 1836, out of Wash- 
ington County territory. Huntsville is the county seat. Madison County is separated from 
Missouri by Carroll County, and the Indian Territory by Washington. Its area is about 838 
square miles, of generally broken lands, about one-half its area being mountainous or hilly. 
A considerable portion of the soil is alluvial on which the usual products are grown. There 
is an abundance of timber of excellent quality. The county is well watered and there are 
indications of stone, coal, lead, iron and silver, but none are developed. 

Huntsville is the county seat. It was laid off in 1839. Its present population is 500 
souls. 

MARION COUNTY. 

Marion was the thirty-fifth county formed, which event took place November 3, 1835,. 
out of territory taken from Izard County. It was named in honor of General Francis Marion. 
Yellville is the county seat, with a population of some 700 souls. Marion is of the northern 
tier of counties lying against the Missouri line, is well watered and its mountains well filled 
with minerals, covered with fine forests of timber, while fertile valleys line its waterways. 
The following from a description which appeared in the Mountain Echo, will give a pretty 
clear idea of the advantages Marion offers : 

Zinc was first discovered in this county some five years ago; active prospecting at once began, since 
which time hundreds of thousands of dollars have been expended in mining, with a result of placing this 
county in the front rank of zinc districts in the world, and stamping it as the source to which the world must 
look for its future supply of that mineral. 

Pine, white, post, burr oak, hickory, cedar and walnut predominate. The mineral belt is covered with 
timber as are the agricultural lands. The forest products, with railroad transportation, will instantly be in 
the market, and will more than pay for the land at the present average price of undeveloped mineral land, 
$10 per acre. 

Last but not least is the immense deposits of marble in this county, comprising all the principal colors of 
the merchantable article, fine of texture, susceptible of high polish, and rising in bold ledge form of from 
five to seventy feet. It has been pronounced by leading geologists to be the finest and most inexhaustible 
deposits in the United States. 

In addition to White River, which is navigable six months in the year, railroad building is now going on 
and it is stated that twelve months hence will give us railroad connection with the markets of the world. At 
present shipments are being made via White River to Batesville, Ark., on the Iron Mountain & Seuthern 
Railway, thence to the various smelters of the country by rail. 

Lands can now be purchased for one-fourth the amount they can be had for when the completion of the 
road is made, and the boom incident to an initial road opening up a wonderful country, is upon us. 

Our exhibit at the World's Fair contains one bowlder solid crystalized carbonate zinc 7x6x4 feet, and 
estimated to contain 14,000 pounds of ore. This was broken from a large bowlder, weighing 236,000 pounds, 
which in turn was cracked off the main ore body of the famous Morning Star Mine of Rush Creek, Marion 
County, said main body being 43x33x63 feel solid ore. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 105 

NEWTON COUNTY. 

Newton was forty-seventh in order of creation, December, 1842, out of Carroll County 
territory. It is of the second tier of northern counties, and has an area of 900 square miles. 
The surface of the county is very broken, mainly, but quite a portion of the northern 
part is level and prairie lands. Jasper, the county seat, is in the interior of the county, a 
little north of center. Its population is perhaps 400. Newton County is developing into a 
great mineral county, second only perhaps to Marion, in extent and quality of her ores. 
The timber growth is varied and extensive, but as yet difficult of shipment. 

SEARCY COUNTY. 

Searcy was the forty-first in the line of formation. It was formed in 1838, out of ter- 
ritory taken from Marion County. Searcy has an area of 600 square miles. Its surface is 
somewhat broken, but about one-half the lands are level, and the soil good. The county is 
well watered, and minerals are known to exist in the county. Copper and lead have been 
discovered, and fine marble and stone are abundant. The famous Tomahawk Copper Mines 
are situated irr Searcy County. Marshall, the county seat, was located in 1856. The pres- 
ent population is about 500. 

WASHINGTON COUNTY. 

Washington, the eighteenth county formed, was created October 17, 1828. Washing- 
ton is an extreme northwestern county, bounded west by the Cherokee line of the Indian 
Territory, and separated from the Missouri line on the north by Benton County. Its general 
character of country is hilly and mountainous, with about one-third of its territory level and 
of rich alluvial soil. Its area is about 890 square miles. The products of the county are all 
the grains and grasses, and all the general products of the latitude. The country is specially 
adapted to fruit culture, in fact to date it stands first and best in the matter of fruit growing. 
It is the home of the famous Shannon Pippin apple. Grape and small fruit growing is pros- 
ecuted with great success and profit. Fayetteville, the county seat, was founded in the year 
1828. It is one of the oldest and best towns in the State. A great many of Arkansas' most 
distinguished sons have lived and died there. The Arkansas Industrial University is located 
there. It was established by the State. The building is a handsome and imposing brick 
and stone structure, having all modern improvements and adornments necessary to make it 
creditable to the city and the State in which it is located. The institution is in a prosper- 
ous and flourishing condition. The State supports it and keeps a good faculty in -charge of it. 

GOVERNMENT LANDS. 

The only way to get Government lands now is by homestead entry or pre-emption. 

Any person may homestead 160 acres of public land who is the head of a family, or, if 
single, over twenty-one years of age, and a citizen of the United States, or has declared in- 
tention to become a citizen. 

No settlement or improvement is required before filing, but it is best to make settlement 
and to be sure of a correct description of the land taken. The applicant need not appear in 
person before the Register of the land district in which the tract is situated, but if prevented 
from going to the land office by sickness, distance or other good cause, he may forward by 
mail his application and affidavit. After fihng, the applicant has six months to get on his 



106 General Infonnatioji and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

land and begin his settlement and improvements. He must not be absent from his land ex- 
cept from necessary causes a few days at a time, and he is to make his actual residence con- 
tinuously upon the land. 

He must build a house that is habitable for all seasons, and must have several acres 
broken and in cultivation. After five years' residence, and at any time within seven years 
from the first filing, the homesteader may make final proof and secure his patent. 

If he does not wish to reside five years on the land, he may, after fourteen months' 
residence and ordinary improvement, pay for the land at the rate of ^1,25 per acre and re- 
ceive his patent. 

Before making final proof, notice must be given by publication, in a newspaper to be 
designated by the Register of the land office, as published nearest the land in question. 
These may be contested. 

Where a person has abandoned a homestead, that is, has failed to reside on and do the 
necessary improvements in the time required by law, any other person who wishes to file on 
the same tract may make affidavit attested by one or more witnesses, stating the abandon- 
ment and asking leave to prove the fact and be allowed to file on it, at the same time offer- 
ing his own filing. 

The following are the fees and commissions allowed by law for services rendered by 

district land officers : 

DECLARATORY STATEMENTS. 

Soldiers' and Sailors' homestead declaratory statements $2 00 

HOMESTEAD ENTRIES ON MINIMUM LAND. 
[Original entry fees and commission payable when application is made.] 

For 160 acres — fees, $10; commissions, $4; total - $14 00 

P'or 80 acres — fees, 5; commissions, 2; total 7 00 

For 40 acres — fees, 5; commissions, i; total 6 00 

FINAL HOMESTEAD COMMISSIONS— (No fees.) 

[Payable when certificate issues.] 

For 160 acres, at $1.25 per acre $4 00 

For 80 acres, at 1.25 per acre 2 00 

For 40 acres, at 1.25 per acre i 00 

PLATS OR DIAGRAMS. 
Land officers are required by law to furnish plats. The land office circular says under the section of the 
Act of March 3, 1883, authorizing a charge to be made for plats or diagrams, the fees for the same are here- 
by fixed as follows : 

For a diagram showing entries only $I 00 

For a township plat, showing entries, names of claimants, and character of entry 2 00 

For a township plat, showing entries, names of claimants, character of entry and number 3 00 

For a township plat, showing entries, names of claimants, character of entry, number and date of filing 

or entry, together with topography, etc 4 00 

For diagrams of a part of a township a proportional amount is charged. 

The United States Land Office for the District embracing Baxter, Benton, Boone, Car- 
roll, Fulton, Izard, Madison, Marion, Newton, Searcy, Stone and Washington Counties, and 
parts of Crawford and Independence Counties, is located at Harrison, in Boone County. 

CLIMATE. 

The climate of Northwest Arkansas is all that can be desired, mild winters, long spring 
and summer and fall. In comparison with the much talked of climate of California, it is 
found that the mean annual temperature of Los Angelos is but one degree less than Little 
Rock, which is located about the center of Arkansas. In the northwest portion of the State 
the atmosphere is invigorated by the odor of pine and cedar, which renders it unequaled 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 107 

anywhere for health. It is indeed a genial clime, as has been said the winters are short and 
mild, and the snow fall is generally light and usually only remaining on the ground but a 
few days. The heat of summer is not oppressive, while refreshing breezes generally prevail. 
The country is well known for its general healthfulness. By reference to census statistics, it 
will be seen that Arkansas is one of the healthiest States in the Union, and the northwest 
part in this respect is a highly favored portion of the State. 

The climate of Northern Arkansas is more equable than in latitudes farther north or 
south and of localities possessing a less varied topography. Observations made at Lead 
Hill, Boone County, reported by the U. S. Signal Service for 1890 give the mean tempera- 
ture as 60° 6 Fahr. In the coldest weather the earth in exposed situations does not freeze for 
a depth of more than four inches and seldom remains frozen more than two weeks. The 
heat of summer on account of the altitude and mountain breezes is seldom oppressive in the 
daytime, while the nights are delightfully cool and refreshing. The forest-clad mountains 
protect the valleys from the severe winds of winter. During the winter light snows are not 
infrequent, but never remain on the ground but a few days. The field can be plowed dur- 
ing much the greater part of the winter season. This portion of the State is peculiarly 
exempt from cyclones, violent storms and high winds, and it is a very rare occurrence to see 
a common rail fence that is staked and ridered. The reported rain fall at Lead Hill for 1890 
is given at 58.90 inches. 

FARM PRODUCTS. 

Our principal crops are corn, wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, peas, and the various grasses 
.and vegetables. Anything like a system of manuring is unknown in Northwest Arkansas, 
and is not needed. While soil responds readily to a fertilizer, its natural richness obvi- 
ates the necessity of such applications. In the older settled portions of the country there 
are farms that have been in cultivation for twenty, thirty, forty, and perhaps for fifty years, 
without scarcely the failure of a crop, and aside from an occasional load of manure from the 
barn lot, their original strength has not been supplemented. The yield per acre depends to 
a very great extent upon the industry of the farmer. Ordinarily, the corn crops will 
average from forty to seventy-five bushels to the acre. Oats about the same. Corn usually 
sells at from twenty to fifty cents per bushel — sometimes reaching in price as high as seventy- 
five cents, Oats bring from twenty cents to fifty cents per bushel. For wheat. Northwest 
Arkansas excels all other portions of the State. Vegetables of every description flourish as 
well here as in any portion of the United States ; while our meadows and prairies are equal 
to the best for hay. 

WATER. 

As before stated, the entire country is well watered, with the beautiful White River 
winding through it from west to* east, together with innumerable smaller rivers, creeks, 
springs and branches, flowing from the hills and mountains. These streams abound with 
fish of various kinds. In mineral springs of medicinal qualities. Northwest Arkansas is per- 
haps without a rival. The virtues of the famous Eureka Springs, as a health resort, are well 
known in all parts of this country and Europe. 

TIMBER. 

The State of Arkansas has a greater variety of useful timbers for the mechanical arts 
than any of her neighbors, or all the New England States combined, and with her navigable 



108 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

rivers and railways they are easily placed on the market. — Arkansas Press. And North- 
\rest Arkansas is not an exception to the rule, but has her share of all the varieties contained 

in the State. 

STATE OF IMPROVEMENT 

It seems to be generally believed by many not familiar with the state of improvement 
and character of the soil in Northwest Arkansas, where railroads are scarce, that we have 
nothing but small farms or patches among the hills, and they in a bad state of cultivation, 
and that the soil is all sterile and rocky, so as to make the pursuit of agriculture unproduc- 
tive, unprofitable and therefore uninteresting. In order that these impressions may be 
removed we would briefly refer all to the present real state of improvement in the agricultural 
sections thereof. From an extended personal knowledge and acquaintance of the country,, 
the writer would positively affirm that three-fourths of her area is susceptible of cultivation, 
and when properly handled will prove highly remunerative to the farmer. But by no means 
must it be believed that a good part of our fertile territory is not already in a productive 
state. There are innumerable farms of several hundred acres, in the very highest state of 
cultivation, distributed through the many beautiful prairies and rich valleys. 

DAIRY INTERESTS. 

The dairy interest has been almost entirely neglected, though the country affords the 
most favorable conditions for its successful prosecution. A mild climate, pure air, excellent 
spring water, and a soil especially adapted to clover and domestic grasses, are conditions 
seldom found in one locality. Butter and cheese will bear transportation better than any 
other product of the farm and there is no good reason why Northwest Arkansas should not 
surpass all other localities in the production of dairy products. 

FISH CULTURE. 

Fish culture that is being successfully prosecuted in many localities can be made very 
profitable in this locality. Artificial lakes can easily be constructed by simply darning the 
spring branches that flow in many ravines and would have a constant supply of fresh water 
from the mountain springs. The experiment of raising speckled, or mountain trout, ha& 
been successfully made at Mammoth Spring under the superintendence of the Fish Com- 
mission. Devoted to this purpose an acre of water will yield a much larger income than the 
same area cultivated in cotton or grain and at much less expense. 

STOCK RAISING. 

Under this head the Commissioner of Agriculture, writing of Arkansas, says: 

"The northern and western portions of Arkansas are especially adapted to the rearing of light harness and 
saddle horses. There is an abundance of pure water, a dry soil, containing more or less lime; with fertile 
valleys, producing an abundant supply of bone and muscle-making feed." 

"The mildness of the winters are such as to allow the young stock to run out nearly every day, and with 
winter pasture of rye and barley, the cost of raising good horses can be reduced much below^ that of States 
less favorably situated." 

The above statement applies with equal propriety to the raising of mules, which can be 
more profitably conducted than in localities more remote from the market afforded by the 
Southern cotton, rice and sugar plantations ; and where more capital is invested in lands ; 
and a greater expense incurred in wintering stock. 



General Liformation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 109 

Cattle live during the winter on the open range but do not thrive without some feed ; 
though in the summer and fall they fatten on the wild grass. Land that is inclosed and 
kept from fire, is soon covered with a luxuriant growth of native grasses, that afford rich 
winter pasturage sufficient to keep stock in good condition without feed. 

Hill lands that can be made as valuable for grazing purposes as the blue grass lands of 
Kentucky, with less labor and expense than was required to bring them to their present con- 
dition. In addition to the enumerated advantages possessed by this country for stock raising, 
stock is remarkably healthy, and not subjected to the annoyance of insect pests so objection- 
able in less favorable localities. 

Sheep keep fat and produce heavy fleece from the herbage on the open range, and 
receive no further attention than salting and shearing ; the destructive wild animals having 
been nearly extinguished. 

Hogs fatten readily for slaughter on the wild mast, and do not require further attention 
than an occasional rounding up and feeding to keep them from running wild. 

TOBACCO. 

Tobacco nowhere pays a better revenue to the producer than in Northwest Arkansas ; 
and large barns are to be seen in all directions, in portions of the country. 

POULTRY. 

Of late years the poultry business in the various counties of Northwest Arkansas, has de- 
veloped into mammoth dimensions. Most any of the towns ship thousands of dollars worth 
of eggs and chickens monthly. The whole country exports hundreds of car loads of eggs 
and poultry annually, all of which attest how well the country is adapted to poultry raising. 

SPORTING. 

Deer, turkeys and squirrels in the mountains, ducks and quails about the water courses 
and on the prairies, and fish in the numerous streams, all afford sportsmen and overworked 
business men a fine field for recreation. 

SOCIETY. 

,Our society is of the very best, and in this particular especially have we been most mis- 
understood. Northern people especially are agreeably surprised on visiting our State to 
find our people as orderly, polite, hospitable and peaceable as they are. In Arkansas every 
man enjoys perfect independence, we have no invidious distinction between rich and poor, 
and all enjoy in the fullest degree the liberty of speech and opinion. There are many ad- 
vantages which we have not space to mention, but it is certain, that, all things considered, 
Northwest Arkansas offers a most excellent and enticing field for immigrants, either rich or 
poor. Schools and churches are found at short intervals throughout the rural districts, 
while there is scarcely a town or city but has its institutions of learning and higher educa- 
tion. No State in the Union has a better enforced law against the carrying of weapons, and 
it can safely be said that no where can a lesser percentage of the people who carry arms be 
found than in Arkansas. The State is keeping pace in protecting and aiding her citizens by 
beneficent laws, securing payment for labor performed or material furnished, and protecting 
the unfortunate debtor against the rapacity of the greedy creditor. 



110 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas, 

MAKING HOMES. 

Building material of the finest quality is found in abundant quantities, and the cheap- 
ness of the same allows the erection of improvements at from one-half to one-third of the 
cost in other countries. All varieties of ornamental shrubbery and grasses grow here with 
very little care, and homes are beautified and made attractive with very little expense. 
Northwest Arkansas is a land of pleasant homes. Improved lands sell from $5 to ^ioo> 
per acre, according to location and nature and extent of improvements. Provisions and 
general supplies are as cheap here as anywhere. Farm wages range from $10 to ^30 per 
month. Common day labor, 50 cents to $1. Mechanics, I1.50 to $2.50 per day. Brick 
masons, ^2.50 to $4 per day. 

WATER POWER AT MARBLE CITY. 

Here is the nucleus of a prosperous manufacturing town, its superb water power, and 
many other natural advantages insuring its rapid growth and permanent prosperity. 

Marble City affords a fine opening for the establishment of cotton and woolen mills, and 
parties investing in these enterprises cannot fail to realize a handsome profit. The abundant: 
water power would effect a saving of the original cost, and wear of a steam engine, of fuel, 
and the wages of an engineer that would greatly reduce the cost of manufacturing. 

The local demand would consume the product of the mills to a great extent, and yarns 
and cloth could be profitably exchanged at the mills for the raw material. One of the cot- 
ton gins in Marble City in 1889 put up 800 bales. The cotton of this country is eagerly 
sought for by spinners on account of the length and strength of its fiber. The production 
of cotton is steadily increasing and sufficient supply for a large mill could be bought at its 
doors, thus giving the manufacturer the great advantage of present supply of raw material 
and a home market for the manufactured products, leaving the costs of freights, commissions. 
and other incidental expenses paid by the consumer to be added to his profits. 

Wool sufficient to employ a mill is raised in the vicinity, and the large local demand for 
woolen goods would consume the greater part if not the entire output. 

OUR MINERALS. 

ZINC. 

Those most competent to judge pronounce the deposits of zinc in Northwest Arkansas,. 
to be the richest and most abundant ever discovered in the United States. The best evi- 
dence of the superior quality of our ore is the fact that smelters readily pay more for North- 
west Arkansas ores than for that produced in other portions of the country. Nature has in- 
deed endowed our country, especially that part embraced in the Counties of Boone, Newton, 
Searcy, Marion and Baxter, with a liberal hand. Running through the Zinc Belt every- 
where, tons and tons of peculiar percolated rock, intermingled with carbonate of zinc and 
"black jack" can be found at or near the surface. 

Again, a remarkable and significant fact is that the ore vein is invariably found at from 
sixty to eighty feet from the surface, and the deposit the purest grade of zinc. We speak 
more particularly of zinc because it is the predominating mineral in this country, so much so 
that it is called the zinc region. But we might mention that we have also good and valuable 
deposits of lead, copper and manganese. 

A few years ago the United States surveyors at work in Marion County, found such un- 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. Ill 

mistakable indications of mineral deposits in the outcroppings of zinc, lead and copper, that 
by their advice a considerable body of land was taken off the Agricultural list and placed in 
the Mineral Belt, to be governed by the mineral land laws. In his report to the United 
States Mineralogical Bureau, Prof. Gardner, State Geologist, pointed out particularly the 
richness, of our zinc, comparing the same in quality with the Silician ore, the finest in the 
world. Until the last four or five years little was done to develop what will undoubtedly 
prove in a very few years to be one of the richest and greatest mineral countries in the 
United States. Assays of our zinc ore, by Prof. Pierre de P. Rickets, Metallurgist ard 
Chemist of the Columbia School of Mines, New York City, made at the instance of the 
New York Zinc and Lead Company, prove the ore to run 58.09 per pent pure zinc; 60 per 
cent being the purest state in which it has ever been found. 

It may seem strange to some of our readers, but it is nevertheless a fact, that zinc, as a 
valuable commercial metal, has been known, comparatively, only a few years. Men now 
living can remember when the English used the ore on account of its weight and compact- 
ness, to ballast their ships; that is to say it was commercially valueless. In recent years, 
however, science has demonstrated that, next to iron, it is perhaps the most useful metal 
yet discovered. Its uses are more general than those of copper and lead. The importance 
of oxide of zinc and other chemicals of which zinc forms a part is well known in the chem- 
ist's and druggist's laboratory, and spelter or metallic zinc is an indispensable article of com- 
merce and is used in a thousand varieties of forms, so that gradually, year by year, zinc 
mines, or lands showing indications of zinc ore, have been more and more sought after, 
especially as the old mines have become exhausted or had to be abandoned on ac- 
count of water, expensive machinery or depth. Thus we see our new mines will be in very 
great demand when transportation is assured. 

The writer has traveled considerably over Boone, Marion, Baxter, Stone, Searcy and 
Newton Counties. In all of which there is much to interest, concerning minerals. In each 
now, the important question of mining zinc, lead, copper, marble, onyx, manganese or some 
other mineral, or one or all of them, is an absorbing topic. It has resolved itself fully to the 
mining of these minerals, for there no longer exists a doubt in the mind of any man who has 
traveled here, but what all of those I have mentioned, and others, exist. 

We could show you for instance a quarry of beautiful, fine grained, variegated marble, 
with an exposure of from twenty-five to fifty feet thick, and a quarter of a mile long, all 
ready for the workman. Again you might see with your own uneducated eye, an exposure 
of over five hundred tons of zinc that will not cost more than fifty cents per ton to mine, and 
that has not cost the owners over ^5,000 to thus far develop and expose. We might here 
ask our readers to think, not of our possibilities, but of the existing and interesting facts that 
everywhere present themselves. For instance we have the property of White River Mining 
Company, the Bonanza mines, the Buffalo Zinc and Copper Mining Company, the Morning 
Star Mining Company ; the mines and onyx caves and beds of Water Creek ; the Tomahawk 
Copper Mines, several prospects on James and George's Creeks ; the New York Zinc and 
Lead Company ; the Shawnee Zinc and Lead Company ; the Music Creek Zinc Mining Com- 
pany, besides various other marble and onyx quarries and prospects and outcroppings with- 
out number in Marion County, and all the mines and developments in Boone and Newton 
Counties. We say all of these are convincing evidences and arguments as to the real exist- 
ence of richness and vastness of our minerals. 



112 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

FRUITS. 

Northern Arkansas is acknowledged to be pre-eminent in the production of fruit. 
Apples, peaches, pears, grapes, and all the small fruits grow as prolific here as anywhere. 
The following facts are sufficient evidence of the quality of our fruits : 

At the World's Exposition held at New Orleans in 1885, Boone County was awarded 
first premium for best display of apples, peaches and pears, and carried off thirteen first 
premiums on individual specimens. 

At Boston, during the Pomological Exhibition in 1887, the first premium for excellence 
was again given to Arkansas and the award was made on the display sent from Northwest 
Arkansas. 

Again, at San Francisco in 1888, Arkansas carried off first honors and this, too, over 
California, the acknowledged fruit country of the world. 

In addition to this, wild fruits grow in abundance, and no one need be without fruit 
every day in the year. But little attention has been given to fruit culture on account of a 
lack of transportation, but now thriving young orchards may be seen on every farm. 

In the language of another, whose identity we have lost. Northwest Arkansas is Nature's 
famous fruit palace of America. Indeed, the fruit interest of this section, though in its 
infancy, is attracting great attention and favorable comment from all sources of the country, 
and a tide of immigration has already set in. It is the home of the strawberry and rasp- 
berry, these fruits selling never for less than $75 per acre, often reaching ^150 to ^200 per 
acre. Our market is coextensive with the whole length and breadth of our country. The 
apple, however, is the fruit of all fruits ; it is king in Northwest Arkansas, attaining a per- 
fection here that cannot be rivaled anywhere. This has been well demonstrated in Wash- 
ington County. At the Springdale fruit fair a few years ago, there were about three hundred 
varieties of apples alone on exhibition. The premiums which we have taken at the various 
exhibitions are sufficient evidence to convince anyone of the superior excellence of the fruit 
of Northwest Arkansas, where all of our climatic conditions conspire to make it all that Nature 
ever intended it to be. In Northwest Arkansas we grow twenty-ounce Pippin, the beautiful 
Maiden Blush, the Wine Sap and Early Harvest, the Red Astrachan, the Buckingham and 
Early Pippin, the Red and Yellow June, the Sweet Bough and Summer Pearmain, Grimes' 
Golden and the Yellow Bellflower. This is the home of the celebrated Ben Davis. We also 
grow to perfection the Huntsman's Favorite, Missouri Pippin, Rome Beauty, and hundreds 
of other varieties, that will some day surely make this the richest section in all our vast 
country, and that before many years roll by too ; and it should be borne in mind that our 
climate and seasons are so near perfect that a failure in any crop is unknown. We ask the 
earnest consideration of our advantages. Our unimproved fruit lands can be bought now at 
reasonable figures, a mere trifle, when the profits they yield are considered. Fruit trees can 
be had for ^30 and ^40 per thousand. 

We are indebted to Mr. (x. A. Gamble, of Harrison, proprietor of the Harrison (Estes) 
Nursery, also editor and proprietor of the Arkansas Fruit Grower, for the following article 
concerning this as a fruit country and the various fruits, their adaptability to this climate and 
country, etc. : 

NORTH ARKANSAS, "THE ORCHARD OF AMERICA." 

•'Comparatively little is known throughout the United States concerning the unlimited resources of North- 
west Arkansas. Much has been said about our undeveloped mines and the impossibility of estimating the 
hidden treasures which await development, but the fruit industry is perhaps as much in its infancy as are our 
mineral resources. 



114 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

We have very few orchards which are made to yield their full quota, yet it is possible to produce from 
fifty to sixty bushels of apples per tree. Allowing fifty trees to the acre we have 2,500 to 3,000 bushels from 
one acre, which marketed at gathering time, at the very lowest figures, would net the producer $600 to $800 
per acre, and if kept until spring, assuming that they are late keepers, and allowing one-sixth for loss, the 
remainder would bring the husbandman $2,000, or more than three times the amount realized if sold in the 
fall. But there are few orchards under present conditions that average more than twenty bushels per tree,, 
while many farmers realize a very small profit from their orchards. Benton and Washington Counties have a 
larger acreage of fruit than Carroll, Madison, Boone, Marion or Baxter or the counties south. It is estimated 
that the apples shipped in 1892 from Bentonville alone amounted to $30,000 while the shipments from Fay- 
etteville, Washington County, were in excess of that. Early peaches and strawberries are shipped success- 
fully from points accessible to railroad transportation. Pears, plums, cherries, grapes and other small fruits 
receive comparatively no attention in portions of Northwest Arkansas. One hundred apple trees, two hundred 
peach trees, ten cherry trees, ten pear and twenty plum trees to each farm, would perhaps be a fair average 
for Boone County. Most farms are supplied with gooseberries and strawberries, while perhaps one in five 
have a few grapevines. The Ben Davis is the most popular all purpose apple for this section. Peaches do 
exceedingly well, but most all fruits are subject to attack from insects and fungus diseases. But little effort 
has been made in Boone and adjoining counties to arrest these enemies to fruit, by spraying. But rather 
when the fruit becomes thus affected, the orchards are in many instances abandoned. A few orchards have 
been sprayed with success, but sufficient confidence as to the efficacy of spraying has been established to bring 
the spray pump into general use. 

It is au established fact that all fruits grown here attain their largest proportions. The twenty-ounce Pip- 
pin has been grown to weigh twenty-two ounces. The Ben Davis, Arkansas Black, the Arkansas Mammoth 
Blacktwig, Minkler, Rome Beauty, White Winter Pearmain, Wine Sap, Shockley, Missouri Pippin, Jeneton 
and Little Red Romanite are the leading varieties of winter apples for this country; while the Rambo, Fall 
Pippin and Jonathan are the excellent fall apples, and the Early Harvest, Red June and Red Astrachan are 
the most popular early varieties. The fact that our fruits have taken the prizes at New Orleans, Boston, New 
York, Louisville, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Riverside, Cal., needs nothing more to convince the reader that 
this is the home of the apple, the peach and the strawberry vine. 

What more inviting field can be offered the home .seeker than a place where can be had thousands of 
fruit trees continually growing into objects of beauty and wealth, and where the crop is seldom cut short if 
properly cared for, and never a failue.? 

Unlike most business occupations it furnishes an inviting field within easy reach of the man with limited 
means, and by starting on a small scale, putting out a supply of small fruits which will bear the second year^ 
he will at once begin to be awarded for his labor. " 



LAWRENCE COUNTY. 



BY HON. CLAY SLOAN. 



Lawrence lies in the central northern portion of the State. This was one of the original 
five counties into which Arkansas Territory was divided at its formation in 18 15, and derived 
its name from the gallant American sea-captain who, when wounded in an unequal engage- 
ment gave utterance to the expression, "Never give up the ship." 

Lawrence County has an area of 600 square miles and is divided into equal eastern and 
western portions by Black River. West of the river the surface is hilly and the soil a clay 
and lime stone adapted to the growth of wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, cotton, corn, potatoes and 
small fruits. It is also pregnant with minerals, among which lead and zinc have been worked 
to some extent, notably at "Lead Mines," five miles from a railway, and zinc at "Happy 
Mines," twelve miles from a railway and five from navigation. 

The eastern portion is undulating alluvial soil, very rich and adapted to cotton, corn, 
potatoes, melons and fruits. 



General Infonnation and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 115 

WATER. 

This county is especially blessed with fine waters. Black River is navigable the year 
round and has a length of seventy-five miles in the county. Tributary to this in the western 
portion are Strawberry and Spring Rivers, which in their turn have as tributaries Machine, 
Cooper, Dry Stinnett's, Hardin "Flat" and other creeks, which are fed by gurgling springs 
without number, and now these creek and river valleys have quite a number of farms upon 
them, on which oats, wheat, rye and corn are waiving, and on the pasture lands, consisting 
of timothy, orchard, millet, redtop and clover, are found a goodly number of cattle, sheep 
and hogs, which of recent years have been bred up to a limited extent. But still lands here 
are for sale at from ^i to %\o per acre according to improvements and location, and there is 
still quite an acreage of United States and State lands that may be had for establishing a 
home upon them. 

East of Black River the water courses are "Village Running Water," "Marrow Bone" 
Creek, "Lindsay Horner" and other bays. Here the soil is exceedingly fertile, one bale of 
cotton, fifty bushels of corn per acre being an average crop. This soil is especially adapted 
to the growth of watermelons and sweet potatoes which are grown in great quantities and 
marketed in Kansas City, Mo., Memphis, Tenn., and other points. There are also quite a 
number of small peach orchards and berry farms sprung up in the last few years and are 
bringing their owners handsome returns. 

TIMBER. 

Timber is found in great quantities, consisting of oak, cypress, gum, elm, ash and 
walnut, all of which are being worked to some extent, there being now in the county not less 
than fifty sawmills in successful operation, and though their output is remarkable the inroad 
upon the supply is hardly discernible. 

TRANSPORTATION. 

Apart from Black River, traversing the county north and south, there is the St. LouiSj 
Iron Mountain & Southern Railway which runs the entire length of the county, twenty-three 
miles north and south through its eastern portion, making a junction with the Kansas City^ 
Springfield & Memphis Railway at Hoxie, Ar'k., which has a length in this county of thirty- 
three miles, thus for its abundance of products there are ample facilities for shipment ta 
Memphis, Tenn., eighty miles; Kansas City, Mo., two hundred miles; St. Louis, Mo., two 
hundred and twenty-five miles; Little Rock, Ark., one hundred and twenty-five miles, and 
many intermediate points. 

EDUCATION. 

The educational facilities of this county are the efificient free school system of Arkansas. 
There are here fifty-four districts in which school is held from three to ten months in each 
year, thus furnishing scholastic training as good as the best for the educational advancement 
of its children, black and white, in separate schools. Within each of these districts there are 
from two to three churches of the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian denomina- 
tions, where on each Lord's day the people meet in Sunday Schools and other service for 
the training of their children and their own spiritual and moral upbuilding, and that social 
refreshing always beneficial among the law-abiding, intelligent, honest, industrious citizen- 
ship such as Lawrence County boasts. Lawrence County has seventy miles of navigable 
river, one hundred square miles of farms, sixty-five miles of railway, millions of feet of 
lumber, thousands of tons of zinc and iron, fifty sawmills, spoke factories, etc., fifteen thous- 
and inhabitants. Still like the old ship of Zion, "there is room for a many a more," and 
should they come, be they from north, south, east or west, or from over the sea, their hands 
will feel the warm clasp of welcome. 



116 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

EUREKA SPRINGS. 

The history of the Eureka Springs is tinged with romance and tradition running back to 
the time when Arkansas was a part of the dominions of the King of Spain. In support of 
this, in 1880, in a cave near by, some tools of antique pattern were found, supposed to have 
belonged to early Spanish adventurers. The Hon. J. M. Richardson of Carthage, Mo., 
relates a conversation had with "White Hair," chief of the Osages, in 1847, about a won- 
derful " Medicine" Spring which he located in this vicinity, and described as flowing into a 
basin-shaped cavity in the rock, which " Black Dog's" father scoured out some seventy 
years before, from which they dipped the water with their gourds, and in which, by divert- 
ing the stream, they sometimes ground their corn. Col. Richardson said that when he 
visited these springs in 1880 and saw the basin which then existed, but is now covered by 
the grade in front of the spring, everything so completely coincided with "White Hair's" 
description as to leave no doubt in his mind of its identity. 

The location of the city is the last one in the world which would ordinarily have been 
chosen. The impossibility of presenting a striking and vivid picture of Eureka Springs has 
been fully realized by every person who has made the attempt, and the most powerful de- 
scriptive writer would rise from the task dissatisfied with the best efforts of his pen. To 
group and present a few of its most prominent features would utterly fail to do justice to a 
city without a parallel — unique, phenomenal, picturesque and beautiful. 

When the first view of the city is obtained it presents a most unique appearance. It 
might be compared to a vast army of buildings of various sizes in an attempt to scale the 
mountain heights, stopping temporarily before making another effort. They are not in tiers, 
yet they rise one above another, like huge steps in a giant's ladder. Every spot upon which 
a human abode could be constructed has been utilized. 

It is indeed a most peculiar looking place, presenting an apparent disregard to anything 
like order and regularity of arrangement, covering an area of some two or three square miles. 
The city is one of wonderfully rapid growth, and where a few years ago was an uninhabited, 
sterile mountain glen, now nestles a bright little city of over 6,000 resident population, which 
is greatly increased by tourists and visitors constantly coming and going. 

The formation of the mountains is remarkable, a sort of geological confusion. A person 
might almost imagine without very great effort that here may have been located the Creator's 
work-bench when He fashioned the universe. Indeed, this whole region looks as if some 
mighty eruption had once convulsed the place and left it in heaps and piles without regard 
to man's convenience. The face of the country, the bold, bare, projecting crags, the 
jutting rocks, deep depressions, fissures, sharp angles and numerous caves, all favor this 
idea. The gravel stones, many of them very beautifully marked, show evidence of having 
been subjected to heat. 

After this region was abandoned by the Indians, the character of these springs was only 
known to the few white settlers who, principally as hunters, inhabited these mountains, until 
1879, vvhen Judge Saunders, who had been afifiicted for years with erysipelas and dropsy, 
learned of the efificacy of the waters through a local physician, who advised him to give them 
a trial. He did so and was cured. The news of his restoration to health caused others to 
try the springs. They also in turn received the coveted blessing — restoration to health. 
These were discussed and commented upon, causing others to come in an increasing ratio, 
until now, when scarcely ten years have elapsed, at the place where Judge Saunders' lonely 
tent stood, has risen a city as if by magic of some Aladdin. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 117 

The many marvelous cures effected by the use of the waters of Eureka Springs are attrib- 
uted to no one spring in particular, although each one has its formidable list of cures and 
enthusiastic advocates. The charming legends that have become attached to each one would 
in the mselves suffice for a volume that would prove both quaint and entertaining. The 
many marvelous cures attributed to the use of these waters would almost lead a person to 
believe that the day of miracles had returned to bless mankind in the healing of disease. 

There are upwards of forty springs within the limits of the city. All possess powerful 
medicinal qualities, such properties as are conducive to health and longevity, and no person 
can be positive that they will not prove beneficial until giving them as fair a trial as they would 
be willing to give their family physician. One should not become discouraged after reaching 
the springs because a miracle is not performed, and, after a few drinks of the water and a 
few days' baths, leave before the work of restoration has even commenced. 

Should the question be asked: What will these waters cure? it might be answered, that 
it is harder to decide what they will not cure. Rheumatism, dyspepsia, kidney diseases, 
liver complaint, paralysis, diseases of the eye, hay fever, nasal catarrh, female complaints, 
skin diseases, scrofula, neuralgia and constipation have all been benefited and many cases 
completely cured. Observation has shown that consumption is almost the only disease 
which does not readily yield to the remedial effects of these waters. 

The first discovered was the Basin Spring, so called because of the peculiar bov/1- 
shaped cavity in the rock heretofore referred to, and is one of the most popular of the group. 

Harding Spring, Crescent Spring, Dairy Spring, Little Eureka and the Magnetic are 
among the principal ones, of which the Crescent and Dairy have been improved with hand- 
some pavilions, and have been protected from contamination. 

The Crescent Spring flows out from beneath a ledge of rocks upon the same level with 
the others. The water from this spring has acquired a reputation for wonderful cures. It 
is located on the mountain side below the Crescent Hotel, in the best part of the city, and 
surrounded by many handsome cottages. The spring has another outlet near by, formerly 
called The Congress Spring, which is now arched over beneath the surface of the ground 
with masonry, and its entire flow forced, by means of powerful pumps, over two hundred 
feet to the summit of the mountain, where it supplies the baths and other domestic uses of 
the Crescent Hotel. 

On the opposite side of the mountain, west of the Crescent Spring, is located the Dairy 
Spring in one of the loveliest parts of the city. This spring is one of the most famous of this 
popular group. To its waters is attributed the cure of a large number of cases of cancer. It 
is located but a short distance from and within the grounds reserved for park purposes 
attached to the Crescent Hotel. 

Another spring, known as the Magnetic, which derives its name from the magnetic quali- 
ties of it waters, and is much frequented. Many wonderful cures have been effected here. 

The Harding Spring is located a full half mile north of the Basin Spring. Leaping out 
from the face of a triangular nook, beneath the overhanging bluff ledges and jutting rocks, 
it merrily pours out a copious stream of cool, clear, refreshing water. 

The United States Government analysis, however, shows that all differ but little in their 
constituent parts, although many of the residents claim the best results are to be had only 
from the special spring that may be located with regard to their personal interests-. To all 
are attached the romance of superstitious legends : and crowds of tourists and hapless 
invalids dip steadily from the current, from early morn to the close of day. * 












FAULKNER COUNTY 

COURTHOUSE, 
Conway, Ark. 

E. G. SEVIER, 

County Judge. 

R. E. SEVIER, 

Commissioner. 



RiCKON & Thompson, 

Architects, 

Little Rock, Ark. 




The accompanying engraving shows the Faulkner County Courthouse, looking northwest 
from the corner of Robinson and Locust Avenues. This building, which is now under course 
of erection, will be a model of beauty and convenience when completed. The basement, 
foundation and trimmings are of gray sandstone from the Cabin Creek quarry, and the 
first story of tower is of gray granite, supported on the corner by a massive polished column 
•of same material. This stone is from Pulaski County, and is said to be the finest granite in 
the world. From water table to top of first story of tower, steel gray brick are used. These 
brick are made at our home factory, and cannot be excelled for beauty or durability. The 
interior woodwork is of native yellow pine, finished in hard oil. The building from out to 
out is 65 X no feet, with county ofifices, fire and burglar vaults on first floor and court, jury, 
attorney and witness rooms all on second floor, all of which are provided with all modern 
conveniences. The corner stone bears the following inscription : 

Erected 1893. 

Rickon cS: Thompson, Architects. 
E. G. Sevier, County Judge. 

R. E. Sevier, Commissioner. 
Donaghey & Hanell, Contractors. 
The building cost $24,600. 



^Ss; 




NORTH ARKANSAS. 

SHARP COUNTY. 

The County of Sharp is in the northern tier of Arkansas counties, bounded on the north 
by Oregon County, Missouri, on the east by Randolph and Lawrence, and on the south by 
Independence, and on the west by Izard and Fulton Counties. The most of its surface lies 
high and dry, and is drained by waters flowing south, tributary to White River ; those trib- 
utary to Black River flowing east. Its surface presents a variety of features, some portions 
being hilly and broken, others rolling and undulating, with summit plateaus, while still other 
portions present a level or flat surface. 

North Arkansas occupies a middle ground between the extremes of heat and cold. The 
mean average temperature for Arkansas is 60° Fahrenheit, and the mean average rainfall 49 
inches. Though containing no navigable stream, Sharp is a well watered county. About 
one mile west of Hardy, in section 3, township 19 north, range 5 west, it receives the waters 
of South Fork, itself a large and important stream. These crystal streams, the one rushino- 
impetuously down rocky canyons from the great Mammoth Spring of Fulton County, and the 
other from the spurs of the Ozarks farther west, abounding in salmon, bass, trout, and other 
game fish, afford the most delightful pastime to the true sportsman ; while the dashing falls 
and headlong cataracts, occurring every few rods throughout the course, offer water-power 
of untold capacity, where splendid mills and factories might be operated at small cost for 
motive power. 

The timber of the county includes pine, all the oaks, walnut, hickory, ash, sycamore, 
elm, gum and cedar. In the western portion of the county a belt of yellow pine fifteen 
miles long and from two to five miles in width furnishes an ample supply of excellent lumber 
for building purposes. 

The crops annually produced include corn, cotton, wheat, oats, rye, millet, redtop, 
sorghum, clover, tobacco, beans, peas, Irish and sweet potatoes, melons, squashes, pump- 
kins, onions and all vegetables grown in a temperate climate. The fruits grown are apples, 
peaches, cherries, plums, apricots, quinces, pears, damsons, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, 
strawberries and others. The strawberry and blackberry grow wild throughout the county. 
Fruits are not extensively grown, yet with ordinary care fruit culture is a success. Our apples, 
pears and peaches placed on exhibition at the Little Rock Exposition attracted widespread 
attention, though placed beside the finest collection of such fruits ever shown in the State. 

The crops annually grown for consumption and shipment, by the latest reliable statistics, 
include 6,500 bales of cotton, 600,000 bushels of corn, 56,000 bushels of wheat, 70,000 
bushels of oats, 4,120 bushels of peas and beans, 2,164,000 pounds of hay, 60,000 pounds 
of wool, and 10,000 pounds of dried fruits. 

The corn yield is from 25 to 75 bushels per acre. A crop of 75 bushels per acre is 
rare, and so also is a crop as small as 25 bushels. 

The average yield of wheat in the county is quite small, but is annually on the increase. 
The census of 1880, which is the latest reliable source of information on wheat production 
at hand, places it at a fraction less than ten bushels per acre, but at that time the people 
were less acquainted with wheat culture than now. Then the wheat was scattered broadcast 



120 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

in their cornfields with the cornstalks or corn still standing, and scratched in with a small 
plow. There was not a wheat-drill, a reaper, or anything of the kind in the county. Since 
then some of our most enterprising farmers have supplied themselves with improved plows, 
drills, reapers and mowers, and are now making some money raising wheat. Where proper 
care has been bestowed some extraordinary yields of fine wheat have been reported. A 
crop was grown on upland in the vicinity of Evening Shade that had been under the plow 
for more than forty years without fertilizers of any kind, but by deep plowing and early 
seeding it was made to yield more than thirty bushels per acre. After thorough preparation 
of the soil and early seeding, the wheat crop is always a success here. 

Cotton is grown in all parts of the county. The Strawberry valley, the valleys of the 
tributaries, and the adjacent highlands, by reason of the warm, sandy soils, furnish cur best 
cotton lands. In this region the farmers who grow cotton as their surplus crop are pro^permg. 

The apple is a sure crop in all the northern counties of Arkansas. In some of the north- 
western counties, notably Washington and Benton, possessing the same character of soil in 
all essential respects, with the same climatic influences as Sharp, but where the cultivation 
of apples has been a leading industry for many years, their fruits have obtained almost a 
world-wide reputation. Apples equally as good are grown in Sharp County where the same 
attention is bestowed. 

The peach is at home in this section of the State. The most perfect specimens are 
raised with slight attention on any of our soil. Seedlings, grafted or budded fruits, whether 
grown in Northern or Southern nurseries, come in bearing early and seldom fail to produce 
immense crops. Our cheapest lands and roughest hills may be profitably utilized for peach- 
growing. The northern and middle portions of the county, lying near the Kansas City, 
Springfield & Memphis Railroad, offer good opportunities to the grower of early fruits. 
The peach tree borer is the only enemy to peach culture in this section. 

One hundred and sixty varieties of apples and nearly as many peaches with all the 
varieties of cherries, apricots, plums, quinces, damsons, pears, grapes and berries, can be 
successfully grown here, and the business can be inaugurated on smaller capital in this 
county than any other in the State. Lands well adapted to fruit growing may be home- 
steaded or bought at $1.25 per acre. 

The county is unsurpassed for stock raising. The farmers of Sharp County can raise 
horses, mules, sheep, cattle, etc., 100 percent cheaper than it can be done farther north. 
From early spring to late autumn stock need only to be looked after and salted occasionally. 
Hogs do remarkably well here when given the proper attention. For sheep, no section on 
the American continent is better adapted to that industry than Sharp County and the other 
counties of Northern Arkansas lying west of it. There is not a single sheep farm in the 
county, nor a farmer engaged in sheep or wool growing as a business, yet, according to the 
State Auditor's report, founded on the tax lists, only three counties — Washington, Benton and 
Independence — in the whole State, have more sheep than Sharp. Two of these counties ex- 
ceed Sharp in area 300 square miles, and the other over 100. Balancing the annual increase 
of flocks against the cost of winter feeding and attention, if the wool clip should not exceed 
three pounds per head, wool is produced in Sharp County at less than four cents per pound. 

Sharp County lies in the mineral belt. Vast deposits of zinc, iron and manganese ore 
are known to exist and have been partially developed, and though the work was conducted 
under great disadvantages, it is said that it was profitable at that time. Zinc has been suc- 
cessfully mined and smelted at Calamine, in the southwestern portion of the county. 



l!ijjii[!:,:;St^ii^r:;;?('::.j''H,'''l T^-r 




EASTERN ARKANSAS. 

The following notice of Arkansas, Prairie, Monroe and St. Francis Counties was pre- 
pared by Maj. Gray Taylor, of Palestine : 

ARKANSAS COUNTY. 

This county embraces an area of i,ooo square miles, lying mostly along the west bank 
of White River, in the southeastern part of the State. Bounded on the north by Arkansas 
River, it thus includes some of the finest bottom lands in the State. 

The surface is drained by Bayou Meto and Big and Little La Grue Rivers, which flow 
through the county from northwest to southeast, thus giving an abundance of water supply. 

The surface is rolling prairie and woodland. Though nowhere more than loo feet 
above high water mark, there is no land in the county that is not susceptible of cultivation. 

Grand Prairie enters the county on the north and extends- down the center for forty 
miles, being from ten to fifteen miles wide. Besides this, there are several other smaller 
prairies, while the "woodland lies along the streams and in places crosses the prairies in strips. 

The soil of the prairies is clayey with wet subsoil, producing grass higher than the stock 
that feeds upon it. That of the woodland is a sandy loam, deeply covered with mould, 
which gives it surpassing fertility. 

This covers an area of about one-third of the county, and where not cultivated is covered 
with a magnificent growth of hard timber, including black, red, post and water oaks, white 
and black hickory, cypress, pecan, elm, gum, maple and ash. 

In product per acre this county ranks ninth, producing cotton, corn, oats, fruits, berries, 
vegetables, niiillet, clover, hay and potatoes, while its melons are unsurpassed. 

The cotton district lies along the streams and produces from a bale to a bale and a half 
per acre. Corn and oats from forty to sixty bushels. The prairie land produces from three- 
fourths to a bale of cotton and from fifteen to forty bushels of corn. Oats from forty to 
sixty bushels, millet two to three tons. 

Haying is one of the principal industries, while many farmers, realizing the profit to be 
derived from stockraising, have turned their attention entirely to that pursuit. The winters 
are so short that stock has to be fed only one or two months. 

Arkansas County has 30,440 acres of school land and the annual school fund is nearly 
1 1 7,000. The county has no debt and scrip is at par, while taxes are low. 

There are about forty churches, representing the various religious denominations. 

The county supports three newspapers : The Dispatch^ published at DeWitt, The Chron- 
icle^ and Republican- Star ^ published at Stuttgart. 

DeWitt, the county seat, is in the south-central part of the county, at the terminus of 
the Grand Prairie Railroad. It has a ^14,000 courthouse, a fine graded public and high 
school, and two churches. 

Stuttgart, the metropolis, is set like a beautiful picture on Grand Prairie, at the junction 
of three railroads. It has a brick and tile factory, with a capacity of 2,000,000 bricks yearly, 
a large sawmill and three lumber yards, three hotels, street cars, bank, school building and 
seven churches. Population about 1,500. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 123 

PRAIRIE COUNTY. 

Prairie County lies just north of Arkansas, and south of White. It is bounded on the 
■east by Woodruff and Monroe, and on the west by Lonoke. It has an area of 710 square 
miles, and a population of 10,000. 

The surface is slightly undulating and well watered by White River and its tributaries, 
and consists of prairie and heavily timbered woodland. 

The prairie land is mostly south of a dividing line running east and west, and a large 
proportion is included in Grand Prairie, which extends out into adjoining counties. North 
■of this dividing line, however, are found several small prairies noted for their fertility and 
productiveness. 

The chief crops are cotton and corn, but the prairie lands are especially adapted to 
small grain, tame grasses, vegetables, especially tomatoes and early peas, strawberries, 
grapes, peaches and pears ; while plums seem to do better here than anywhere else in the 
State. Apples do better in higher altitudes. 

Here is a natural range for stock from March to December, and stock raising is rapidly 
coming into prominence, the prairies being divided into ranches and stocked with blooded 
stock. 

The timber growth of this county includes a superabundance of red gum or satinwood, 
•which, in some localities, will yield 30,000 feet of timber per acre. There is a quantity of 
hickory, some walnut, post, black and white oaks, ash, maple, elm, pecan, gum, etc. 

The financial condition of the county is good, ithaving no bonded indebtedness. 

White River affords shipping facilities for the entire eastern part, while the Little Rock 
& Memphis Railroad crosses from east to west, and the Cotton Belt crosses the southeastern 
corner. 

There are public schools in nearly every neighborhood, while the principal towns have 
good buildings and fine schools. 

There are three county papers. Guidon., published at Des Arc, Prairie County Monitor., 
published at Devall's Bluff, and The Star., at Hazen. 

Des Arc, the county seat, on White River, annually ships from 5,000 to 6,000 bales of 
cotton. 

Devall's Bluff is the seat of justice for the southern part of the county. It is located 
where the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad crosses White River. Its greatest enterprise is 
its boat oar factory, which employs 300 men and turns out 3,000 feet of finished oars a day. 

Hazen, on the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad, is the commercial point. It ships, 
•cotton, hay and fruits. 

MONROE COUNTY. 

Monroe, situated in White River Valley and traversed in its western limits by both White 
and Cache, has an area of 660 square miles. It is an eastern interior county, bounded 
north by Woodruff, east by St. Francis, Lee and Phillips, west by Prairie, and on the south- 
west separated by White River from Arkansas County. 

The surface is generally level and heavily wooded. The bottom lands, sixty square 
miles in area, have dark sandy soils with substratum of clay at a depth of from two to three 
-feet, very fertile, and when cultivated will yield from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of seed cotton 
per acre. 



124 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

Cotton is the chief staple, this county ranking eleventh in acreage and thirteenth in' 
product per acre. Next in importance is corn, the yield being from forty to sixty bushels. 
Potatoes and turnips yield 300 bushels. Oats, from forty to sixty. Small fruits and berries, 
especially strawberries, do well here. 

The raising of live stock is on the increase, and its advantages for this industry equal 
those of any other county, for, besides hay and mast, there are extensive canebrakes where- 
stock may winter. 

Improved farms can be purchased at from ^10 to ^50 per acre; unimproved, at from 
;^i to ^15, while there are nearly 30,000 acres subject to donation to actual settlers. 

The shipping facilities are superior to those of any other county in the State, unless it 
be Pulaski. Five railroads intersect each other with Brinkley and Clarendon for local points,, 
while White and Cache Rivers afford an outlet for heavy products. 

Monroe expends about $12,000 a year on her schools, employing about sixty teachers^ 
The various religious denominations are well represented, there being about forty congrega- 
tions worshiping in the county. 

Clarendon, the county seat, is situated on the east bank of White River, in the western, 
part. It has a large stave factory, two cotton gins, a grist mill, three hotels, a school build- 
ing and one newspaper. The Sun. 

Brinkley, in the northern part of the county, is an important railroad center and manu- 
facturing town. Here are the machine and car shops of the Batesville & Brinkley Railroad,, 
the Brinkley Car and Manufacturing Works, Kniffen's Foundry, the Brinkley Oil Mill, two 
stave factories, the Union Wood Turning Works, the Monroe County Bank, two newspapers,. 
The Argus and Monroe County Mirror., besides churches, hotels, meat markets, etc. 

Only one-eighth of this county is under cultivation, and her vast forests are but waiting 
for the hand of the capitalist to change their solitude into the busy hum of the factory. 



ST. FRANCIS COUNTY. 

The southeastern corner of St. Francis comes within six miles of the Mississippi River^ 
and it is bounded by Cross, Crittenden, Lee, Monroe and Woodruff. 

Its area is 620 square miles, divided into three sections by St. Francis and L'Anguille 
Rivers, which cross from north to south. Eacla of these sections has distinctive topograph- 
ical features. That east of St. Francis River is level and has the dark loamy alluvial soil of 
the Mississippi valley. Its supply of timber is practically inexhaustible, consisting of poplar, 
walnut, cypress, hickory, ash, elm, gum and oak. Where cultivated, it averages nearly 
a bale of cotton to the acre and sixty-five bushels of corn. 

Between the St. Francis and L'Anguille is Crowley's Ridge, which is broken into hills,, 
and has an altitude of 300 feet. The soil, somewhat alluvial, is not surpassed in fertility by 
any uplands in the State. 

West of the L'Anguille, the surface is undulating with loamy soil, interspersed with 
clayey fiats and prairie land. 

Cotton and corn are the chief crops, but oats, wheat, rye, potatoes, turnips, peas, 
pumpkins, pears, cherries, apples, plums, peaches, quinces and grapes are extensively 
grown. Stock raising is a rapidly growing industry, the prairies in the west and the cane- 
brakes in the east affording fine facilities. Jersey cattle do exceedingly well here. 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 125 

The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway and the Little Rock & Memphis cross 
at right angles at Forrest City, while St. Francis River is always navigable for small boats. 

There are forty common schools and numerous churches in the county. 

Improved land can be bought from $5 to $40 per acre ; unimproved from ^i to $12. 

In many places the lands lying along the St. Francis are subject to overflow, while 
much has been reclaimed by levying and is the most productive in the county. 

The county is practically out of debt, and taxes reasonably low. 

Forrest City, the county seat, is admirably located, and has two brick yards, a canning 
factory, a distillery, large sawmills, a fine brick hotel, five churches and a bank. 

Other small towns are Millbrook, Wheatley, Palestine and Madison. 

The last named is a shipping point on the St. Francis and has large sawmills, and a 
stave factory. 

LEE COUNTY. 

Lee County is comparatively a new county, having been created by the Legislature of 
1873. The territory of which it is composed was formerly parts of Phillips, Monroe, St. 
Francis and Crittenden Counties, the larger part being from Phillips. It contains 612 
square miles of the most fertile lands of the State. Its shape is oblong, having a length of 
about 28 miles and a width of 18 miles, with Marianna, its county site, situated within a 
short distance of its geographical center. 

Lee County has a population of 18,886, an increase over 1880 of 5,598, with a constant 
and uninterrupted increase. It is extremely gratifying that our population is being rapidly 
increased by men of industry, character and capital, who, from choice, seek our fertile lands 
.and well regulated society, as a home for themselves and as a heritage for their children. 

We have a further advantage in the easy access to the best markets, reaching Memphis, 
St. Louis and other markets in a few hours, thus putting our fruits upon the best markets 
before they are stale or crisp. 

We have as well regulated system of common schools as can be found in any county in 
the State, nearly every school district voluntarily imposing a tax of five mills for school pur- 
poses. Every town, village and neighborhood in the county have their places of worship, 
where the story of the cross is statedly told. 

No county perhaps in the State is so rich in valuable timbers as Lee. We have m 
abundance every variety of oak, poplar, hickory, ash, walnut, black, red and sweet gum. 
All of these timbers will soon become an important factor in the hands of increasing enterprise. 

Our lands lie like a beautiful enchanting plain, and under provident and skillful culture 
Avill grow richer each succeeding year. 

The society of Lee County is not surpassed in the State for culture and refinement ; our 
lawyers are skilled in the contests of the forum ; our physicians are educated as to the ills of 
the flesh ; our ministers eloquent and fervent ; our merchants distinguished for their solvency, 
enterprise and financial management ; our farmers well advised as to the cultivation and 
management of soil and products. In a word, Lee County challenges any county in the 
State to show a combination of advantages equal to hers. 

The health of Lee County will compare favorably with any county in the State, our 
death rate being less than other localities sought as health resorts. 

In 1882 Lee County raised corn and cotton which sold for 11,054,030, or more than 
one-half the entire assessed valuation of the real and personal property of the county. 



SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS. 

HOWARD, SEVIER, POLK AND LITTLE RIVER 

COUNTIES. 



BY HON. HAL. NORWOOD. 

Among the many localities in the State of Arkansas affording inducements to home- 
seekers and men with money to invest^ none surpass this section of the State, composed of 
Howard, Sevier, Polk and Little River Counties. These counties are located in the south- 
western part of the State, the Indian Territory being, the boundary line for three of them; 
the other lying to the east of Sevier County. The area and population are as follows : 
Howard County — area, 629 square miles; population, 13,789. Sevier County — area, 547 
square miles; population, 10,072. Polk County — area, 935 square miles; population, 9,283. 
Little River County — area, 547 square miles; population, 8,903; making a total of 2,658 
square miles, and 42,047 inhabitants. About fifteen per cent of the population is colored; 
the majority of them live in Little River County. 

The northern half of this section is mountainous and hilly, but the soil is rich and pro- 
duces well. The soil in the mountain valleys is as fertile and desirable for farming purposes 
as the valley along the Shenandoah in Virginia. 

Not so much of the land in the northern portion is tenable as will be found further down 
on the Saline and Cossatot Rivers, in Sevier, Howard and Little River. 

By reference to the "Land Map" of Arkansas, issued by the United States Bureau, 
it will be seen that five counties contain all the black lands in the State, and three of the five 
counties are in this section. The black lands are found in large tracts in Southern Sevier 
and Howard ; most of it, however, is found on Red River in Little River County, being the 
same character of soils as the black prairie lands of Texas. 

A very small per cent of the land in these counties is improved. Unimproved lands 
can be bought from fifty cents to ^10 per acre, and improved lands from $5 to $50 per acre, 
on easy terms. Any one desiring to purchase a home in this section, can find just what he 
wants, and is not required to pay cash, but will be allowed from one to five years to pay for 
it. Cotton, corn, oats, barley, wheat, rye, millet, alfalfa, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghum, 
peas, turnips; and, in fact, all farm and garden products are grown here successfully. 
Cotton and corn being the principal crops, the average yield of the former is 750 pounds 
seed cotton to the acre, and 25 bushels of corn; but there is plenty of land that yields 
annually one and a half bales of cotton and 75 bushels of corn to the acre. 

No great attention has been given to fruit growing yet, but has done well wherever tried. 
Polk County is as well adapted to fruit growing as any county in the State, and hundreds of 
bushels of apples are hauled in wagons from that county every year to Texarkana. 



128 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

Grapes do well, and at present there are a number of fine vineyards near Nashville, in 
Howard County, and also a great many scattered throughout the other counties. Along 
the streams any amount of grapes grow wild ; this being an evidence itself of the fertility of 
the soil. Whortleberries, blackberries raspberries, and dewberries are found abundantly, 

growing wild. 

This section is rich in limber — almost all kinds being foun^ here — such as walnut, ash, 
cherry, oak, beech, hickory, dogwood, maple, elm, gum, bois d'arc, cypress, sycamore and 
holly. Vast and extensive forests of pine yet untouched, which will make lumber one of 
the chief industries as soon as transportation is furnished. On Red River, in Little River 
County, are large groves of pecan trees that yield an abundant crop every season. The 
mountains of Polk County are covered with cedars growing wild. 

In good, pure, cold water, this part of the State is not surpassed. Well water is found 
at an average depth of twenty feet. Besides good well water. Nature has supplied the north- 
ern portion of it with good springs that furnish water all the year round ; and so numerous 
are the springs in Polk County, that most all the inhabitants use water from springs. Many 
of the springs are valuable for medicinal purposes; among them are the Chalybeate, White 
Sulphur and Black Sulphur Springs at Dallas, at Gilliam Springs and at Baker Springs. With 
a railroad through this part, it would only be a question of time until these springs would 
become famous as health resorts. 

All kinds of stock do well here, especially cattle, the range being so fine and the winters 
so mild that the cattle make their own living on the cane and grass. Hogs require some 
attention in the summer, but get fat enough on acorns in the fall for pork. The people are 
improving their stock, especially horses ; some fine stock farms in all of the counties. 

The report of the recent Geological Survey shows that part of the State contains many 
valuable minerals, but at present only one mine in operation ; that is the antimony mine. 
Antimony City is located in the northwestern portion of Howard County. The famous White 
Cliffs, on Little River, contain valuable limestone and chalk. At Rocky Comfort, in the 
western part of Little River County, is a bed of marl and marly limestone ninety feet in 
thickness. On the Saline River, in Sevier County, there is what is known as the "Old Salt 
Works," from which there was a large amount of excellent salt during the war. This could 
be worked now, and affords an opening for a good investment. 

These counties contain a class of hard-working, sober, honest, generous people ; no 
cross-road taverns, for every man's latch-string is on the outside for both friend and stranger. 
A number of towns are scattered throughout this section. The principal towns in Howard 
County are Nashville, Center Point (the county site) and Mineral Springs. In Sevier County, 
Lockesburg (the county site), Brownstown and Chapel Hill. In Little River, Richmond 
(the county site) Wilton, Ashdovvn and Rocky Comfort. In Polk County, Dallas (the 
county site), and Cove. In these towns, as in the country, is found an industrious, intelli- 
gent, honest, generous people. In the towns are found churches of various denominations, 
and every few miles in the country will be found good churches standing as monuments to 
the Christianity of the people. 

High schools are found in the towns, and public schools are well supported in both the 
towns and country. 

A person desiring a good farm, with good water, among good people, with good educa- 
tional facilities, where a strict observance of both the civil and Divine law is the motto of all, 
this is the place. We invite you to come. 




SOUTH ARKANSAS. 

OUACHITA, COLUMBIA AND UNION COUNTIES. 



BY HON. SAM. Q. SEVIER. 

In the minds of many persons who are not familiar with Southern Arkansas, the impres- 
sion prevails that the climatic influences here are deleterious to health, and that human life 
is burdened with many ills not to be heard of in other portions of our great and growing 
Union. The growth of this immediate section has been largely retarded by the above false 
impressions ; and to allay such fears in those who contemplate coming to this State to live, 
is one of the prime objects of this article. The records of the census bureau, compiled in 
1880, show that Union County, Arkansas, is one of the healthiest counties in the United 
States, it standing second on the list of healthful counties. One county in the State of 
Texas stands at the head of the list. Ouachita and Columbia Counties adjoin Union, Colum- 
bia on the west and Ouachita on the north ; and the latter counties, while not quite up to the 
standard given Union County, yet both are considerably above the average in respect to 
healthfulness of inhabitants. While the Counties of Ouachita, Columbia and Union are well 
watered with beautiful streams, running into the Ouachita River on the east and into Red 
River on the west, the area of low, swampy, malarial district is quite small as compared with 
the total area within the boundary lines of each of said counties. 

The area of Ouachita County is 900 square miles. Surface level or undulating. .-Allu- 
vial soil. 

Columbia County has an area of 900 square miles. The lands are mostly level, but 
high above overflows. The soil is alluvial and rich ; such a thing as total failure of crops 
from any cause is unknown. 

Union County has an area of about 1,100 square miles. It is one of the most beauti- 
ful and thoroughly drained counties in this country. The surface is level or undulating. 
The soil is rich and easily cultivated. The Counties of Ouachita, Columbia and Union have 
a combined population now of about 48,000 people. 

There are comparatively few large planters ; that is, such as you read about in accounts 
and novels descriptive of the South prior to the great war between the States. The climate 
of this section can be described truthfully in a few words. Our winters are short, beginning 
about the 20th of November and closing in Februai^. Our springs are mostly pleasant in 
temperature, but moist ; our greatest rainfall being from March loth to May loth. Our 
summers are not unusually lengthy nor oppressively warm. As a general rule the heat is 
more oppressive from June 15th to July 15th, but even during this period, cool Southern 
breezes are the rule and not the exception, the thermometer averaging from 80° to 90° in the 
shade during the warmest portions of the day. 

The three counties herein named produce annually about 60,000 bales of cotton, which 
is the farmers' money crop, and at the prices obtained for the past two years, brings about 
$40 per bale, or ^2,400,000 annually into circulation. The agriculturist is learning more 
and more every year the value of producing his own feed crops and as much of that which 
goes to keep the table supplied as possible. Corn, oats and_ hogs do well in this section, 



130 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

and more attention is paid to raising same than in former years ; notwithstanding, the home 
production does not yet supply the home demand, A large demand for the products of the 
hog, corn and oats is from sawmill employes, who constitute a large and growing element 
in our population. The lumber or sawmill interest in the three Counties of Ouachita, Co- 
lumbia and Union are large and growing. The amount of money invested in lumber pro- 
ducing appliances, and in timber lands, exceeds in value the agricultural values. The value 
of the output of the lumbermen is, perhaps, nearly thrice as great as the amount realized from 
the sale of cotton. The St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) Railway extends through the 
Counties of Ouachita and Columbia, from northeast to southwest, and opened up vast tracts 
of virgin yellow pine forests which are now being worked by experienced mill men, mostly 
from Michigan and other Northwestern lumber districts. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain, 
Camden & Alexandria Branch extends through the Counties of Ouachita and Union, from 
north to south. These roads cross at Camden, the largest place in the territory described, 
and the recognized financial center of the entire surrounding country. Camden is at the 
head of navigation on the Ouachita River, and is a thriving city of about five thousand 
people. It will be treated in detail further on in this article. 

Thirty-five large planing and lumber mills on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (out- 
put nearly entirely yellow pine), within the Counties of Ouachita and Columbia, extending 
over about fifty-six miles — thirty-six miles in Ouachita County and twenty miles in Columbia 
— employ about seven thousand people. Some of these mills operate from ten to fifteen miles 
of regular railways and numbers of tramways for transporting logs from the forest to the mills. 
The output or cut of the mills averages about 30,000 feet, each mill, of merchantable lum- 
ber per day, or annual product of thirty- five mills of 315,000,000 feet of lumber, averaging 
in price ^10.50 per 1,000 feet, or grand total in money yearly of $4,720,000, calculation 
based upon 300 working days in the year. 

Thirteen mills on Camden & Alexandria Branch of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & 
Southern Railway, in Ouachita and Union Counties, covering a line of forty-two miles, aver- 
age number of employes 2,000. Yearly output, 65,000,000 feet of merchantable lumber, 
bringing in money about $1,000,000 annually. The timber interest in Ouachita and Union, 
on the above road south of Camden, is in its infancy. The road is a new one south from 
Camden, and was thrown open for business of the ist of July, 1892. It will be seen that the 
income from timber in the three counties alone, along the two railways, is nearly $6,000,- 
000 annually. The supply of timber is large and not yet fully covered by investors, nor the 
territory fully developed by railroad facilities. It is estimated by lumbermen that the sup- 
ply of pine will last for fifteen years. The oak, hickory, ash, gum and other woods have 
scarcely been touched. The Oxley Stave Company put up a large stave plant at Camden 
last year and are now in full operation, turning out about 1,000 cars of white oak- staves per 
year for export to France, Spain and Portugal. The Oxley Stave Company is one of the 
largest concerns of the kind in this country, and have invested largely in white oak timber in 
the three counties herein named. 

The cause of education is progressing rapidly. The common or free schools are well 
supported in the country districts, and all the towns and villages take pride in maintaining 
full nine months' sessions within their respective limits. The schools for the two races are 
kept separate, both races being treated exactly alike in the matter of apportionment of the 
common school funds, although the white population, which predominate both in numbers 
and wealth, pays by far the greatest part of the school tax. The standard of education is 



General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 131 

quite as good as that maintained in the older and more densely populated districts of the 
East and West. The rising generation will compare favorably in point of education and 
morals with the young people of other sections of the country. There is, perhaps, as little 
rowdyism and tippling in the three Counties of Ouachita, Columbia and Union as any three 
counties of the same number of inhabitants in the United States. Columbia and Union 
Counties are what are known as prohibition counties, no tippling shops being allowed within 
their respective boundaries. Ouachita County is a "wet" or whisky county, but whisky is 
sold in but two places in the county — that is, in the City of Camden and the incorpo- 
rated town of Bearden — the local option laws keeping it out of other communities. Local 
option is one of the features of the Arkansas statutory laws, and any community can con- 
trol the sale of spirituous liquors by simply a majority of its voters declaring against license. 
The laws are enforced and crime is not prevalent. The records of the criminal courts show 
juries can be depended upon to punish violators of the law. Crime in this section, as in 
almost all other sections of our country, is confined to the lower classes of the human family. 
There is no political crime or ostracism of record in any of our courts. Democrats and Re- 
publicans, Knights of Labor and Populists, all travel the same roads and vote at the same 
precincts without fighting or annoying each other. The counties are largely Democratic, 
however, and naturally so, because the Democratic party of the South is essentially the white 
man's party, and the white man always stays on top. 

Lands are cheap. In fact, in the writer's opinion, land values are lower to-day in this 
section than anything else and much lower than they ought to be, when you take into con- 
sideration the immense amount of State and Federal Government lands which have within 
only a few years been taken off of the market, by entry and purchase, for timber purposes 
alone. Those who desire to invest in real estate, can do no better than come to this section. 
Peaches, apples, pears, apricots, plums, all grow here to perfection. Grapes, especially the 
Scuppernong, thrive here. This is the native place of the celebrated grape introduced into 
France by the name of "Ouachita Grape," from which our excellent champagne is produced. 

The City of Camden is the county seat of Ouachita County. Population now, about 
5,000; population in 1880, 1,500; in 1890,3,200. 

Camden has two banks, one a national bank and the other a State bank, both with 
^50,000 paid up capital, and deposits running from ^120,000 to |i8o,ooo each. The busi- 
ness men of Camden are noted for their solvency. There has not been a failure of any 
importance in Camden for ten or fifteen years. This city is reported to be one of the wealth- 
iest in point of actual cash to population in the State. Several individuals in Camden are 
worth from $100,000 to $250,000. The business portion of the city is well built, the houses 
nearly all being brick, two and three-stories high, with basements and elevators. The whole- 
sale trade of the city is steadily growing. The courthouse is a beautiful building, costing the 
county about $50,000. The building is in the center of a beautiful square, on an elevation 
overlooking the business portion of the city. The architecture is modern and the building is 
handsomely equipped with all modern conveniences throughout. 

There is no gas plant here, but the city is beautifully lighted every night in the year by 
the best of arc electric lights. There is no portion of the city but that is well lighted. The 
water-works is another feature of the city. The water is taken direct from the river, above 
sewerage, and pumped into the city and through the city to stand pipe on Ft. Southerland, 
which is 130 feet above the level of the river bank. The city has an excellent sewerage 
system and connections therewith are required by the board of health. 



132 General Information and Resources of the State of Arkansas. 

The Hotel Ouachita is leading hostelry. It is a handsome three-story building, equip- 
ped throughout with modern appliances, electric lights, electric bells, water and sewer 
connections. 

The opera house is an imposing three-story structure, on the corner of Adams and 

Jefferson Streets, 50 x 100 feet. 

The Ouachita Valley Fair Association hold its meetings every year, at their beautiful 
grounds one mile south of the city, on the Couon Belt route. The Fair is well attended ; 
good stock, good exhibits and excellent racing, are always assured. The meetings are held 
annually, on the 4th Tuesday in October. 

The schools of Camden are graded and well attended. Both white and black schools 
are maintained for nine months in the year. 

The various Christian denominations are well represented, and there are churches in 
every ward in the city. The Jews have their synagogue and teacher, and form quite an 
element in social and business affairs, some of our largest business concerns being Jews. 

Camden is located on the right bank of the Ouachita River, on a range of bluffs running 
up 100 to 120 feet above the water line in the river. Boats ply between this city and New 
Orleans regularly. The distance by river to New Orleans is 750 miles. Some of our 
steamers are elegant in their appointments, and cater to what is called the "coast passenger 
trade" between Camden and New Orleans. The compress for repacking cotton at 
Camden is one of the largest in the State. The ice plant here, owned by Hicks & Sons, has 
a daily output of twenty tons of ice, and supplies the local demand and many other places in 
this vicinity. 

The United States Government has bought ground in Camden, on Washington Street, 
and have appropriated $25,000 for the erection of a United States Government building. 
The building will be occupied by the United States land office and post ofifice. 

The clays and coals in vicinity of Camden are said to be another great source of wealth, 
and a large company is now forming to develop the same. 

Stephens, Buena Vista, Bearden, Eagle Mills and Chidester are the principal towns in 
the county. 

Magnolia is the county seat of Columbia County — population between 1,500 and 2,000 
people. Magnolia is a progressive and enterprising town. She is noted for the beauty of 
her churches and the quality of her schools. She has the best of both. She makes no pre- 
tensions as a wholesale market, but endeavors to excel in social standing, although the mer- 
chants do a large and lucrative retail trade with surrounding planters. 

El Dorado is the county town of Union County. Until recently this beautiful town had 
no railway facilities and therefore was comparatively dead, but last year the Camden & Alex- 
andria Railway was extended to El Dorado, and the town has put on new clothes and is 
booming. Large interests are springing up all around her, and she bids fair to assume con- 
siderable prominence as a center of trade. Her people are enlightened, enterprising and 
progressive, and number some of the most prominent citizens of the State. 

The above is a plain statement of facts, which can be substantiated by writing to any 
well informed person in the territory named. 




